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MODERN    SOCIETY 


BY 


JULIA  WARD  IHOWE. 


BOSTON: 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS. 
1881. 


COPYRIGHT,  1880, 
BY   ROBERTS   BROTHERS. 


PRINTED   BY 
ALFRED   MUDGK   AND  SON. 


CONTENTS 


MODERN  SOCIETY 5 

CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY 49 


MODERN    SOCIETY 


WHAT  means  this  summons,  oh  friends !  to  the 
groves  of  Academe  ?  I  heard,  in  the  distance,  the 
measured  tread  of  Philosophy.  I  mused :  "  How 
grave  and  deliberate  is  she  !  How  she  matches 
thought  with  thought !  How  patiently  she  ques- 
tions inference  and  conclusion !  No  irrelevance, 
no  empty  ballooning,  is -allowed  in  that  Concord 
school.  Nothing  frivolous  need  apply  there  for 
admission."  And  lo  !  in  the  midst  of  this  severe 
entertainment  an  interlude  is  called  for  in  the 
great  theatre.  The  stage  manager  says,  "  Ring 
up  Puck.  Wanted,  an  Ariel."  And  no  Shake- 
speare being  at  hand,  I,  of  the  sex  much  reproved 
for  never  having  produced  one,  am  invited  to  fly 
hither  as  well  as  my  age  and  infirmities  will  allow, 
and  to  represent  to  you  that  airy  presence  whose 
folly,  seen  from  the  clouds,  is  wisdom ;  that  pres- 
ence which,  changing  with  the  changes  of  the  year 


6  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

and  of  the  day,  may  yet  sing,  equally  with  the 
steadfast  stars  and  systematic  planets,  — 

"  The  hand  that  made  me  is  divine." 

Modern  society,  concerning  which  you  have  bid 
me  discourse  to  you,  is  this  tricksy  spirit,  many- 
featured  and  many-gestured,  coming  in  a  question- 
able shape,  and  bringing  with  it  airs  from  heaven 
and  blasts  from  hell.  I  have  spoken  to  it,  and  it 
has  shown  me  my  father's  ghost.  How  shall  I 
speak  of  it,  and  tell  you  what  it  has  taught  me  ? 
You  must  think  my  alembic  a  nice  one  indeed, 
since  you  bid  me  to  the  analysis  of  those  subtle 
and  finely  mingled  forces.  You  have  sent  for  me, 
perhaps,  to  receive  a  lesson  instead  of  giving  one. 
You  may  intend  that,  having  tried  and  failed  in 
this  task,  I  shall  learn,  for  the  future,  the  difficult 
lesson  of  holding  my  peace.  For  so  benevolent, 
so  disinterested  an  intention,  I  may  have  more 
occasion  to  thank  you  beforehand,  than  you  shall 
find  to  thank  me,  having  heard  me. 

But,  since  a  text  is  supposed  to  make  it  sure 
that  the  sermon  shall  have  in  it  one  good  sentence, 
let  me  take  for  my  text  a  saying  of  the  philoso- 
pher Kant,  who,  in  one  of  his  treatises,  rests 
much  upon  the  distinction  to  be  made  between 


MODERN  SOCIETY. 


logical  and  real  or  substantial  opposition.  Accord- 
ing to  him,  a  logical  opposition  is  brought  in  view 
when  one  attribute  of  a  certain  thing  is  at  once 
affirmed  and  denied.  The  statement  of  a  body 
which  .should  be  at  once  stationary  and  in  motion 
would  imply  such  a  contradiction,  of  which  the 
result  will  be  nihil  negativum  irreprcesentabile. 

A  real  or  substantial  opposition  is  found  where 
two  contradictory  predicates  are  recognized  as 
coexistent  in  the  same  subject.  A  body  impelled  in 
one  direction  by  a  given  force,  and  in  another  by 
its  opposite,  is  easily  cogitable.  One  force  neu- 
tralizes the  other,  but  the  result  is  something,  viz., 
rest.  Let  us  keep  in  mind  this  distinction  between 
opposites  which  exclude  each  other,  and  opposites 
which  can  coexist,  while  we  glance  at  the  contra- 
dictions of  all  society,  ancient  as  well  as  modern. 

How  self-contradictory,  in  the  first  place,  is  the 
nature  of  man !  How  sociable  he  is  !  also  how 
unsociable !  We  have  among  animals  the  grega- 
rious and  the  solitary.  But  man  is  of  all  ani- 
mals at  once  the  most  gregarious  and  the  most 
solitary.  This  is  the  first  and  most  universal  con- 
tradiction, that  of  which  you  find  at  least  the  indi- 
cation in  every  individual.  But  let  us  look  for  a 
moment  at  the  contrasts  which  make  one  individ- 


8  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

ual  so  unlike  to  another.  We  sometimes  find  it 
hard  to  believe  the  saying  that  God  ha,th  made  of 
one  blood  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  This  in 
view  of  the  contrast  between  savage  and  civilized 
nations,  or  between  nations  whose  habits  and 
beliefs  differ  one  from  the  other.  In  the  same 
race,  in  the  same  family  also,  we  shall  find  the  un- 
likeness  which  seems  to  set  the  bond  of  nature 
at  defiance. 

See  this  sly  priest,  bland  and  benevolent  in  pro- 
portion to  the  narrow  limits  of  the  minds  which 
he  controls.  He  hears  the  shrift  of  the  brigand 
and  assassin,  of  the  girl  mastered  by  passion,  of  the 
unfaithful  wife  and  avenging  husband.  He  gives 
an  admonition,  perhaps  a  grave  one.  He  inflicts 
a  penance,  light  or  severe.  He  does  not  trust  his 
penitents  with  the  secret  which  can  heal  the 
plague-sores  of  humanity,  —  the  secret  of  its 
moral  power.  But  see  the  meek  flock  who  come 
to  him.  See  the  whole  range  of  consciences 
which  cannot  rest  without  his  dismissing  fiat. 
The  rugged  peasant  drops  on  his  knees  beside  the 
confessional.  His  horny  palm  relinquishes,  with- 
out hesitation,  the  coin  upon  which  it  has  scarcely 
closed.  Or  here  alights  from  her  carriage  some 
woman  of  the  world,  bright  in  silks  and  jewels. 


MODERN  SOCIETY. 


With  a  hush  and  a  rustle,  reaching  the  lowly 
bench,  she,  too,  drops  down,  rehearses  her  wrong- 
doing, promises  such  reparation  as  is  enjoined, 
and  asks  for  the  word  of  peace.  Now  this  con- 
fessor, and  one  or  more  of  his  penitents,  may  be 
the  children  of  the  same  father  and  mother,  and 
yet  they  shall  be  as  unlike  in  attitude  and  in  char- 
acter as  two  human  beings  can  be.  In  the  closest 
alliance  of  blood  you  may  thus  find  the  opposite 
poles  of  one  humanity. 

Humanity  is,  then,  a  thing  of  oppositions,  and 
of  oppositions  which  are  polar  and  substantial. 
Its  contradictions  do  not  exclude,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, complement  each  other,  and  the  action  and 
reaction  of  these  contradictions  result  in  the 
mighty  agreements  of  the  State  and  of  the 
Church,  the  intense  sympathies  and  antipathies 
which  bind  or  sunder  individuals,  the  affections 
and  disaffections  of  the  family. 

The  opposite  extremes  of  human  nature  em- 
brace, between  them,  a  wonderful  breadth  and 
scope.  The  correlation  and  coaction  of  this  mul- 
titude of  opposing  forces  on  the  wide  arena  of  the 
world  naturally  give  rise  to  a  series  of  manifesta- 
tions, voluntary  and  involuntary,  changeful  in 
form  and  color  as  a  phantasmagoria,  fitful  as  a 


10  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

fever-dream,  but  steadfast  and  substantial  in  the 
infinite  science,  out  of  which  all  things  come. 
The  unity  in  this  web  of  contradictions  is  its 
great  wonder.  How  if  this  unity  prove  to  be  the 
law  of  which  the  oppositions  are  but  one  clause  ? 
How  if  the  perfect  unity  were  only  attainable 
through  the  freedom  of  the  natural  diversity  ? 
And  what  is  the  substance  and  sum  of  this  funda- 
mental agreement  ?  The  desire  of  good,  the  pro- 
gressive conception  of  which  marks,  more  than 
anything  else,  the  progress  of  the  race.  We 
cannot  tell  out  of  what  dynamics  comes  the  initial 
of  this  fruitful  and  productive  opposition.  It  is, 
perhaps,  the  very  unity  of  the  object  which  devel- 
ops the  diversity  of  action.  In  the  progress  of 
human  society  the  diversity  becomes  constantly 
multiplied.  Is  the  sense  of  the  unity  lost  in  con- 
sequence ?  No,  it  grows  constantly  with  the 
growth  of  this  opposing  fact.  As  education  is 
enlarged,  as  freedom  becomes  more  general  and 
entire,  the  agreement  of  mankind  becomes  greater 
in  the  objects  to  be  attained  for  the  promotion  of 
their  best  interests. 

We  can  suppose  a  family  cast  upon  a  barren 
shore,  or  forced  to  sit  down  in  the  midst  of  an 
uninhabited  region.  All  of  its  members  will  wish 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  1 1 

to  secure  the  necessary  conditions  of  life,  such  as 
food,  fuel,  shelter,  safety  from  destructive  agen- 
cies. If  left  to  themselves,  one  will  naturally 
bestir  himself  to  find  fish,  game,  or  fruits  ;  another 
will  bring  in  firewood  ;  a  third  will  plan  a  tent  or 
hut ;  a  fourth  will  stand  sentry  against  any  pos- 
sible alarm.  So  a  camp  is  a  world  in  miniature ; 
and  if  food  and  drink  be  plenty,  and  there  be  time 
to  think  of  recreation,  some  one  will  carve  a 
pipe  from  reed  or  willow,  and,  in  answer  to  the 
piping,  will  come  the  dance.  Or,  if  our  pilgrims 
are  too  mystic  and  solemn  for  this,  hymns  will  be 
sung,  and  the  voice  of  prayer  will  lift  the  soul  out 
of  the  poverty  of  its  surroundings  into  that  realm 
of  imagination  whose  wealth  far  exceeds  that  of 
Ormus  or  of  Ind. 

I  seem  to  hear  at  this  point  the  non  placet  of 
those  who  ask  for  one  thing  and  receive  another. 
I  was  not  sent  for  to  philosophize,  but  to  repre- 
sent ;  and,  with  regard  to  the  former  process,  "  how 
not  to  do  it  "  should  have  been  my  study.  Modern 
society  is  my  theme.  Where  shall  I  find  society 
for  you  ?  Henry  Thoreau  found  it  here,  in  the  pas- 
sionless face  of  Nature.  Here,  the  shy  Hawthorne 
could  dwell  unmolested,  not  even  overshadowed  by 
the  revered  sage  who  makes  reserve  and  distance 


12  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

such  important  elements  of  good  manners.  Mr. 
Alcott  has  transplanted  here  those  olives  whose 
sacred  chrism  rests  upon  his  honored  brow.  The 
society  which  my  words  shall  introduce  here  must 
be  neither  vulgar  nor  dull. 

Now,  if  I  had  a  flying-machine  !  Well,  I  have 
one,  and  its  name  is  Memory.  Sit  with  me,  upon 
its  movable  platform,  and  I  will  give  you  some 
peeps  at  the  thing  itself,  leaving  you  to  discuss 
after  me  its  raison  d'etre,  its  right  to  be.  In 
experimental  analysis,  specimens  are  always  exhib- 
ited. Let  us  look  at  modern  society  in  Cairo, 
Shepherd's  hotel,  and  the  omnibus  that  bears  one 
thither.  The  table  d'hote  unites  a  catalogue  as 
various  as  that  of  Don  Giovanni.  Here  sit  Sir 
Samuel  and  Lady  Baker,  famous  as  African  ex- 
plorers. You  may  all  know  something  of  the 
entertaining  volumes  which  chronicle  their  dis- 
coveries and  adventures.  Lady  Baker  wears,  at 
times,  a  necklace  made  of  tiger's  claws.  Her 
husband  shot  the  tiger  in  the  great  wilds  of 
Africa,  she  loading  the  gun  with  which  he  did  it. 

She  is  Roumanian  by  birth,  English  by  adop- 
tion, fair  and  comely.  Sir  Samuel  is  a  burly 
Briton.  They  have  with  them  a  young  African 
servant,  dark  and  under-sized,  with  wild,  crimped 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  13 

hair.  Sir  Samuel  tells  me  that  this  is  altogether 
the  best  human  creature  he  ever  knew.  Lady 
Baker  does  not  resent  the  extreme  statement. 
I  sit  at  table  between  a  Russian  count  and  an 
English  baronet.  The  Russian  and  his  two 
daughters  are  amiable  and  simple  people.  The 
baronet  is  a  stanch  Tory,  as  you  will  think 
natural  when  you  hear  his  story.  He  was  once 
a  poor  boy,  hard  at  work  in  a  coal  mine.  He  used 
to  walk  six  or  seven  miles  daily,  after  working 
hours,  in  order  to  acquaint  himself  with  those 
three  Fates  who  are  familiarly  called  the  three 
R's.  Becoming  an  expert  in  the  coal  business, 
he  went  through  the  upward  grades  of  his  profes- 
sion, became  a  large  owner  of  mines,  and  has 
now  a  heavy  contract  for.  supplying  the  Egyptian 
government  with  coal.  He  is  a  member  of  Parlia- 
ment, and,  when  I  saw  him,  was  ready  to  start 
homeward  on  the  first  news  of  a  division  in  the 
House.  It  was  lately  stated  in  a  London  paper 
that  Lord  Beaconsfield  would  probably  raise  him 
to  the  peerage  before  his  own  retirement  from 
office.  So,  it  may  have  been  done  by  this  time. 

My  Russian  neighbors  are  much  troubled  about 
the  fate  of  a  poor  Italian  family  whose  chief  has 
lost  his  occupation,  and  which  is  thus  reduced  to 


14  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

the  extreme  of  want.  "  Why  not  get  up  a  sub- 
scription at  this  hotel?"  say  I.  They  are  very 
willing  that  I  should.  I  draw  up  a  paper,  we  sign 
our  names  and  contributions.  Sir  George  snubs 
us  dreadfully,  but  gives  us  a  sovereign.  Sir 
Samuel  snubs,  and  gives  nothing.  The  necessary 
sum  of  money  is  raised,  and  the  family  is  sent 
to  its  own  country.  Here,  you  see,  are  Russia, 
England,  and  America,  combining,  on  Egyptian 
soil,  to  save  Italy.  This  strange  mixture  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  medley  of  the  time. 

We  will  not  move  yet,  for  the  panorama  of  the 
table  will  save  us  that  trouble.  Here  is  one  of 
the  recognized  beauties  of  London  society.  A 
very  pretty  woman,  with  dewy  eyes,  pearly  teeth, 
dark,  glossy  hair,  and  a  soft,  fresh  complexion. 
A  French  wardrobe  sets  off  those  natural  advan- 
tages, with  its  happy  disguises  and  apposite  revela- 
tions. But  it  is  not  good  for  beauty  that  it  should 
become  a  profession.  This  lady's  fine  eyes  and 
teeth  are  made  to  do  duty  with  such  evident  per- 
sistence of  intention,  that  one  absolutely  dreads 
to  see  the  glitter  of  the  one  and  the  flash  of  the 
other  in  the  gymnastic  of  an  advertised  flirtation. 

I  cannot  yet  release  you.  Here  are  two  gentle- 
men who  wear  the  tarbouche  with  their  European 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  15 

costume.  They  were  rebels  in  our  war  of  secession, 
and  at  its  close  took  service  with  the  Khedive. 
Ignoring  ancient  sectional  differences,  they  are 
very  cordial  with  us,  their  countrywomen.  They 
would  be  glad  to  see  their  country  again,  but 
cannot  get  their  salaries  paid,  the  French  and 
English  commissioners  having  taken  the  direction 
of  Egyptian  finances,  and  making  no  allowance 
for  the  past  services  of  these  American  officers, 
who  were  dismissed  at  their  instance. 

We  are  still  at  Shepherd's  table  cTJiote,  and 
before  us  sit  an  English  nobleman  and  his  wife, 
who  have  obtained  permission  to  give  a  fete  at 
the  Pyramids.  A  gay  party  of  English  residents 
and  visitors  are  gathering  to  accompany  them, 
and  presently  the  carriages  and  cavalcade  start, 
with  a  band  of  music,  and  a  small  army  of  ser- 
vants. They  illuminate  the  Great  Pyramid  with 
colored  fires,  race  their  horses  and  donkeys  through 
the  desert,  sup  and  sleep  in  the  Khedive's  kiosk, 
not  without  much  boisterous  mirth  and  disturb- 
ance. 

Or,  behold  me  on  Bairam  day,  paying  a  New- 
Year's  visit  to  the  harem  of  the  Khedive.  A  row 
of  grinning  eunuchs,  black  as  night,  guard  the 
entrance.  After  various  turns  of  ceremonial,  we 


,  1 6  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

greet  the  three  princesses,  all  wives  of  the  Khe- 
dive, who  has  many  others  not  of  this  rank.  In 
order  not  to  give  offence,  we  are  obliged  to  smoke 
the  chibouque,  a  pipe  about  five  feet  in  length.  We 
smile  and  courtesy  at  the  proper  moment,  but 
find  conversation  difficult.  They  are  curious  to 
hear  where  we  came  from,  and  whither  we  are 
going.  I  ask  whether  they,  also,  enjoy  travelling, 
and  am  reminded  that  their  institutions  do  not 
allow  it.  These  poor  princesses  little  knew  that 
in  two  months  from  that  time  an  involuntary  jour- 
ney awaited  them,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Khe- 
dive's abdication,  and  departure  from  the  country. 
We  please  ourselves,  in  these  days,  with  the 
praise  of  Islamism,  and  think,  quite  rightly,  that 
Mahomet  and  his  Koran  had  their  raison  d'etre, 
and  have  done  their  part  for  mankind.  But  here 
is  Islamism  in  modern  society.  The  howling  der- 
vishes sit  on  the  ground  groaning  Allah,  Allah. 
By  and  by  they  rise,  and  bend  their  heads  back- 
ward and  forward  until  the  most  eminent  among 
them  fall  in  fits,  and  are  taken  up  in  an  unhappy 
condition.  Within  a  short  distance  from  our 
hotel,  we  hear  of  a  company  of  men  met  for  a 
religious  exercise.  One  of  them  chews  a  glass 
goblet  and  swallows  it.  Another  endeavors  to 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  I? 

swallow  a  small  snake.  A  third  gashes  himself 
wildly  with  a  sword.  These  are  religious  enthu- 
siasts. If  their  faith  be  genuine,  these  dangerous 
experiments,  they  say,  can  do  them  no  harm. 

These  things  remind  us  of  the  temptation  of 
Christ :  "  If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  cast  thyself 
down  from  hence." 

But  let  us  leave  the  city  and  hotel,  and  betake 
ourselves  to  the  historic  river,  dumb  with  all  its 
mouths,  and  poor  with  all  its  wealth.  Modern 
society  is  well  represented  on  board  our  steamer. 
Here  are  two  Californian  gentlemen,  two  sons  of 
a  Sandwich  Island  missionary,  two  or  three  Ital- 
ians. Here  is  a  sister-in-law  of  John  Bright. 
She  has  visited  Alaska,  and  considers  this  Nile 
trip  a  small  parenthesis  in  her  voyage  round  the 
world.  Here  are  an  English  couple,  belonging 
to  fashionable  life.  Here  is  a  clergyman  of  the 
same  nation,  who  glories  in  the  fact  that  Dr. 
Johnson  hated,  or  said  he  hated,  a  Whig.  Here 
is  an  American  who  cannot  visit  the  ruins  because 
his  whole  day  is  divided  into  so  many  glasses  of 
milk,  to  be  taken  at  such  and  such  times. 

We  land  one  day  at  Assiout,  and  visit  its  bazaars. 
The  trade  in  ostrich  feathers  is  brisk,  the  natives 
steadily  raising  their  prices  as  the  demand  in- 


1 8  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

creases,  until  we  find  that  the  feathers  might  be 
more  cheaply  bought  in  London  or  Paris.  Amid 
the  general  confusion  of  tongues  I  am  accosted 
by  a  handsome  youth,  cleanly  and  civil,  who 
speaks  fair  English,  and  asks  if  he  can  serve 
me. 

Who  are  you  ?  A  pupil  of  the  American  Mis- 
sion School  in  this  place.  He  brings  two  of  his 
fellow-pupils  to  speak  with  me.  One  of  these  is 
a  girl,  whose  innocent,  uncovered  face  seems  to 
rebuke  the  hidden  faces  of  the  Arab  women,  veiled 
and  disfigured  to  evince  their  modesty,  but  mak- 
ing more  evident  the  immodesty  of  the  men. 

We  return  to  our  steamer,  followed  by  a  crowd 
of  boys  and  girls,  shrieking  and  naked,  who  plunge 
into  the  water  to  get  the  backshish,  which  some 
of  our  party  throw  them.  On  the  bank  stand  two 
beautiful  youths,  nearly  black,  with  eyes  like  sloes, 
and  with  crisped  hair  standing  erect  like  a  flame 
above  their  foreheads.  They  are  clad  in  kilts  of 
white  cotton  cloth.  Struck  with  their  beauty,  we 
inquire  of  what  tribe  they  are.  "Of  the  Bis- 
chouri,"  says  our  dragoman,  "a  tribe  of  the 
desert,  who  feed  only  upon  uncooked  grain."  To 
the  last  their  bright  smile  pursues  us  with  its 
pathos.  Would  that  they,  too,  were  pupils  of  the 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  19 

American  Mission  School.  Would  not  our  vege- 
tarian chief  send  for  them  ?* 

We  gallop  across  the  sands  to  a  point  opposite 
Philae,  and  reach  the  sacred  spot  by  boat.  We 
picnic  among  its  tombs,  climb  its  pylon,  and 
remark  upon  the  beauty  of  the  view.  At  the 
first  cataract,  which  is  very  near  this  place,  an 
Arab  woman  shows  me  her  baby  with  the  pride 
of  Eve  or  Queen  Victoria.  It  has  a  nose-ring 
of  brass  wire,  and  similar  adornments  in  the  top 
of  each  ear.  On  my  way  bajck  to  the  boat,  my 
pocket  is  picked  by  a  cunning  youth.  The  Arabs 
of  the  desert  will  compare  in  this  respect  with 
the  Arabs  of  European  streets.  A  little  Arab 
girl  offers  to  sell  me  her  rag  doll,  whose  veil  is 
bedizened  with  spangles.  A  little  water-carrier, 
proud  of  her  English,  says,  "  Lady,  give  me  back- 
shish." 

This  shall  end  my  peep  at  modern  society  in 
Egypt. 

But  one  more  personal  remembrance  you  must 
accord  me.  The  scene  is  a  dirty,  muddy  street  in 
a  Cyprus  seaport.  The  time  is  not  far  from  noon. 
I  am  exploring,  with  some  curiosity,  the  new  jewel 

*  Mn.Alcott,  Dean  of  the  Concord  School  of  Philosophy,  has 
always  been  known  as  a  vegetarian. 


20  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

which   Lord  Beaconsfield  has  added  to  the  crown 
of  Great  Britain. 

What  a  mean,  poor  bazaar  is  this  ;  what  dull 
streets,  what  a  barren  place  to  live  in,  especially 
since  methymenic  Albion  has  drunk  up  all  the 
best  of  the  wine !  I  pass  a  shop,  and  a  bright 
presence  beams  out  upon  me.  It  is  Lady  Baker, 
with  her  fair,  luminous  face,  full  of  energy  and 
resource.  Sir  Samuel,  she  tells  me,  is  in  the  back 
shop  buying  hardware  for  a  hard  journey.  For 
they  intend  to  travel  through  the  island  in  a  huge 
covered  wagon,  drawn  by  oxen,  which  will  be  to 
them  at  once  vehicle  and  hotel.  Where  they 
went,  and  how  they  fared,  I  know  not,  nor  would 
it  here  import  us,  if  I  did.  I  only  mention  the 
appearance  of  these  friends  in  this  place,  because 
this  appearance  was  so  characteristic  of  modern 
society,  and  because  so  many  of  its  elements 
appeared  there  in  their  persons.  The  education 
and  high  society  of  England,  the  court,  the  lit- 
erary circles,  the  almighty  publisher,  for  an  in- 
tended volume  was  surely  looming  in  the  fore- 
ground of  their  picture.  And  here  I  have  clearly 
got  hold  of  one  feature  of  modern  society ;  this 
is,  that  everything  is  everywhere.  The  Zulus 
are  in  London,  the  Londoners  in  Zululand.  Em- 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  21 

press  Eugenie,  the  exploded  star  of  French  fashion 
in  its  highest  supremacy,  visits  Cape  Town.  The 
stars  and  stripes  protect  American  professors  on 
the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus,  within  view  of  Mount 
Lebanon.  It  would  not  surprise  us  to  learn  that 
a  party  of  our  countrymen  had  read  the  Declar- 
ation of  Independence  beside  the  Pools  of  Sol- 
omon, or  within  the  desolate  heart  of  Moab. 

In  Jaffa  of  the  Crusaders,  Joppa  of  Peter  and 
Paul,  I  find  an  American  Mission  School,  kept  by 
a  worthy  lady  from  Rhode  Island.  Prominent 
among  its  points  of  discipline  is  the  clean-washed 
face  which  is  so  enthroned  in  the  prejudices  of 
Western  civilization.  One  of  her  scholars,  a  youth 
of  unusual  intelligence,  finding  himself  clean,  ob- 
serves himself  to  be  in  strong  contrast  with  his 
mother's  hovel,  in  which  filth  is  just  kept  clear 
of  fever  point.  "  Why  this  dirt  ? "  quoth  he ;  "  that 
which  has  made  me  clean,  will  cleanse  this  also." 
So  without  more  ado,  the  process  of  scrubbing  is 
applied  to  the  floor,  without  regard  to  the  danger 
of  so  great  a  novelty.  This  simple  fact  has  its 
own  significance,  for  if  the  innovation  of  soap  and 
water  can  find  its  way  to  a  Jaffa  hut,  where  can 
the  ancient,  respectable,  conservative  dirt-devil 
feel  himself  secure  ? 


22  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

The  maxim  also  becomes  *  vain  nowadays,  that 
there  should  be  a  place  for  everything,  and  that 
everything  should  be  in  its  place.  Cleopatra's 
Needles  point  their  moral  in  London  and  in  New 
York.  The  Prince  of  Wales  hunts  tigers  in  the 
Punjaub.  Hyde  Park  is  in  the  desert  or  on  the 
Nile.  America  is  all  over  the  world.  Against  this 
universal  game  of  "Puss  in  the  Corner,"  reaction 
must  come,  some  day,  in  some  shape,  or  anywhere 
will  mean  nowhere,  for  those  who,  starting  in  the 
geographical  pursuit  of  pleasure,  fail  to  find  it  and 
never  return  home. 

The  oppositions  of  humanity  have  undergone 
many  changes.  Paul  characterized  them  in  his 
day  as  "Greek  and  Barbarian,  bond  and  free,  male 
and  female."  Christianity  effaced  old  oppositions 
and  created  new  ones.  The  old  oppositions  were 
national,  personal,  selfish.  The  new  opposition 
was"  moral.  It  struck  at  evils,  not  at  men,  and 
tended  to  unite  the  latter  in  a  patient  and  reason- 
able overcoming  of  the  former.  I  know  that  the 
white  heat  at  which  its  first  blow  was  dealt  left 
much  for  philosophy  to  elaborate,  for  science  to 
adjust  and  apply.  A  Jesus,  arrived  at  the  pleni- 
tude of  his  intellectual  vigor,  could  only  have  three 
years  in  which  to  formulate  his  weighty  doctrine, 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  23 

and  could  not  have  had  these  without  much  care 
and  hindrance.  His  work  lay  in  the  normal 
direction  of  human  nature.  In  spite  of  lapses  and 
relapses,  mankind  slowly  creep  towards  the  great 
unification  which  will  make  the  savage  animals 
and  the  selfish  passions  the  only  enemies  of  the 
human  race.  Modern  society  rests  upon  this  uni- 
fication as  its  basis  of  action.  A  positive  philos- 
ophy which  Auguste  Comte  did  not  elaborate 
absorbs  its  highest  thought,  and  dictates  its 
largest  measures. 

And  so  prophetic  souls  bid  farewell  to  the  old 
negations.  In  their  view,  the  lion  is  already  rec- 
onciled to  the  lamb.  The  taming  of  the  elements 
prefigures  the  general  reconciliation.  The  deadly 
lightning  runs  on  errands  and  carries  messages. 
The  Titan  steam  is  the  servant  of  commerce 
and  industry,  meek  as  Hercules  when  armed  with 
the  distaff  of  Omphale.  Emulation,  the  desire 
to  excel,  exquisite,  dangerous  stimulant  to  exer- 
tion, is  not  in  our  day  educated  to  the  intensifi- 
cation of  self,  but  to  the  enlargement  of  public 
spirit  and  of  general  interest.  The  constant  dis- 
coveries of  new  treasures  in  our  material  world, 
of  gold,  silver,  iron,  and  copper,  of  states  to  be 
built  up  and  of  harvests  to  be  sown  and  reaped, 


24  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

are  accompanied  by  corresponding  discoveries  con- 
cerning  the  variety  of  human  gifts  and  their  appli- 
cation to  useful  ends.  What  men  and  women  can 
be  good  for  may  be  more  voluminously  stated 
to-day  than  in  any  preceding  age  of  the  world's 
history. 

Comparison  should  be  a  strong  point  in  modern 
society.  When  travelling  was  laborious  and  diffi- 
cult, the  masses  of  one  country  knew  little  con- 
cerning those  of  another.  When  learning  was 
rare,  and  instruction  costly  and  insufficient,  the 
few  knew  the  secrets  of  thought  and  science,  the 
many  not  even  knowing  that  such  things  were  to 
be  known.  When  wealth  was  uncommon,  luxury 
was  monopolized  by  a  small  class,  the  greater  part 
of  mankind  earning  only  for  themselves  the  right 
to  live  poorly.  When  distinctions  were  absolute, 
low  life  knew  nothing  of  high  life  but  what  the 
novelist  could  invent,  or  the  servant  reveal.  How 
changed  is  all  this  to-day !  Competence,  travel, 
tuition,  and  intelligent  company  are  within  the 
reach  of  all  who  will  give  themselves  the  trouble 
to  attain  them.  The  first  consequence  of  this  is 
that  we  become  able  to  make  the  largest  and  most 
general  comparison  of  human  conditions  which 
has  ever  been  possible  to  humanity,  nor  does  this 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  2$ 

ability  regard  the  present  alone.  The  unveiling 
of  the  treasures  of  the  past,  the  interpretation  of 
its  experience  and  doctrine  which  we  owe  to  the 
scholar  and  archaeologist,,  enable  us  to  compare 
remote  antiquity  with  the  things  of  the  last  min- 
ute. The  work  of  antiquarian  science  culminates 
in  the  discovery  of  the  prehistoric  man.  The- 
ology had  long  before  invented  the  post-historic 
angel.  Now,  indeed,  we  ought  to  be  able  to 
choose  the  best  out  of  the  best,  since  the  whole 
is  laid  in  order  before  us.  But  the  chronic  trouble* 
hangs  upon  us  still.  Had  we  but  such  wisdom  to 
choose  as  we  have  chance  to  see !  The  gifts  of 
our  future  are  still  shown  us  in  sealed  caskets. 
Which  of  these  conceals  the  condition  of  our  true 
happiness  ?  The  leaden  one,  surely,  of  which  we 
distrust  the  dull  exterior,  trusting  in  the  inner 
brightness  which  it  covers. 

What  is  the  problem  of  modern  society  ? 

How  to  use  its  vast  resources.  Here  is  where 
the  office  of  true  ethic  comes  in.  No  gift  can 
make  rich  those  who  are  poor  in  wisdom.  The 
wealth  which  should  build  up  society  will  pull  it 
down  if  its  possession  lead  to  fatal  luxury  and 
indulgence.  The  freedom  of  intercourse  which 
makes  one  nation  known  to  another,  and  puts  the 


26  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

culture  of  the  most  advanced  at  the  service  of  the 
most  barbarous,  is  like  a  flood  which  carries  every- 
where the  seeds  of  good  and  of  evil.  The  ripen- 
ing of  these  depends  much  upon  the  accident  of 
the  human  soil  they  may  happen  to  find.  But 
careful  husbandry  will  have  even  more  to  do  with 
the  result. 

To  America  it  was  said  at  the  outset,  "  Pre- 
pare to  receive  the  World,  and  to  make  it  free." 
Oh,  World,  so  full  of  corruption  and  of  slavery, 
'wilt  thou  not  rather  bind  us  with  thy  gangrenous 
fetters  ?  Wilt  not  the  wail  of  thy  old  injustice  and 
suffering  prolong  itself  until  the  new  strophe  of 
hope  shall  be  lost  and  forgotten  ? 

Where  is  God's  image  in  this  human  brute  who 
lands  on  our  shores,  full  only  of  the  insolence  of 
beggary  ?  Far,  far  be  from  us  ever  the  methods 
and  procedures  which  have  made  or  left  him  what 
he  is.  Honor  and  glory  to  those  patient,  good  men 
and  women  who  will  redeem  his  children  from  the 
degradation  which  seems  almost  proper  to  him. 
Theirs  be  a  crown  above  that  of  the  poet  or 
orator ! 

Modern  society,  then,  is  chiefly  occupied  with  a 
vast  assimilation  of  novelties.  This  task  is  by  no 
means  imposed  upon  us  alone.  While  the  New 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  27 

World  has  to  digest  races  and  traditions,  the  Old 
World  has  to  digest  ideas.  Thanks  to  the  good 
Puritan  stomach  which  we  inherit,  the  process 
goes  on  here,  with  little  interruption.  But  across 
the  seas,  in  Rome,  in  Germany,  in  Russia,  what 
nausea,  what  quarrelling  with  the  fatal  morsel 
upon  which  Providence  compels  the  lips  to  close ! 
"  Non  possumus ! "  say  the  priests  of  the  old 
order.  "  Possum"  replies  the  eternal  power.  The 
French  republic  and  the  English  monarchy  suc- 
ceed best  in  this  altering  of  old  habits  to  suit  new 
emergencies.  But  where  extremes  are  greatest, 
the  contest  is  naturally  fiercest.  A  Pope  fears  the 
cup  of  poisoned  chocolate,  and  dares  not  drink  the 
wine  of  the  eucharist  without  a  taster ;  the  throne 
of  the  Russian  autocrat  is  over  the  deadly  mine  of 
the  Nihilist.  German  vanity  and  diplomacy  bring 
back  the  shadow  of  the  mediaeval  muddle.  The 
living  heart's  blood  of  humanity  comes  to  us  out  of 
these  struggles,  an  immeasurable  gift,  for  good  or 
for  evil.  Can  we  be  quick  enough  with  our  schools, 
just  enough  in  our  government,  sincere  and  devout 
enough  in  our  churches  ?  What  will  Europe  do 
with  the  ideas  ?  What  will  America  do  with  the 
people  ?  These  are  the  questions  of  the  present 
time. 


28  MODERN  SOCIETY. 


One  of  the  serious  social  questions  of  the  day 
is  the  omnipotence  of  money.  People  often  use 
this  expression  in  a  quasi  sarcastic  sense,  not  seri- 
ously intending  what  they  say.  But  the  power  of 
money  nowadays  is  such  that  it  becomes  us  seri- 
ously to  ask  whether  there  is  anything  that  it 
cannot  do.  What  ancient  strongholds  of  taste, 
sentiment,  and  prejudice  has  it  not  stormed  and 
carried  ? 

A  servant,  who  sought  a  place  during  the  first 
years  of  the  shoddy  inflation,  asked  a  lady  who 
was  -willing  to  engage  her,  "Are  you  shoddy, 
ma'am,  or  old  family  ?  I  want  to  live  with  shoddy, 
because  it  pays  the  highest  wages."  The  watch- 
words of  society  as  often  come  from  its  humbler 
as  from  its  higher  level,  and  this  woman  uncon- 
sciously littered  the  word  which  was  to  rule  soci- 
ety from  that  time  to  this.  Money,  during  the 
last  twenty  years,  has  swept  over  most  of  the  old 
landmarks,  and  obliterated  them. 

Religion  itself  stands  aghast  at  this  baptism  of 
gold,  which  can  convert  the  alien  and  the  heathen^ 
ay,  the  brigand  and  the  robber,  into  saints  of 
social  prestige.  For  money  bribes  the  court  and 
pulpit,  and  buys  the 'press;  the  highest  rank,  the 
highest  genius,  pay  homage  to  it.  If  the  duke 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  29 

has  not  money,  he  will  seek  in  wedlock  the  most 
undesirable  of  women,  if  she  be  also  the  richest. 
Royalty  bows  to  the  splendid  cloak  of  vulgarity, 
and  invites  it  to  dine  and  drive.  Happy  day,  you 
will  say,  for  labor,  which  money  symbolizes.  Mon- 
archs  may  well  show  it  respect.  But  money  does 
not  always  symbolize  honest  and  intelligent  indus- 
try. A  great  fortune  often  represents  transactions 
akin  to  theft ;  sometimes  the  thing  itself,  which 
the  world  is  Spartan  enough  to  approve  of,  if  the 
criminal  can  only  escape  positive  detection.  Those, 
too,  who  have  earned  their  money  honestly,  leave 
it  to  children  who  turn  their  back  upon  the  class 
of  which  their  parents  came,  and  desire  to  know 
nothing  of  the  bread-winning  arts  which  they  were 
constrained  to  practise. 

We  have  had,  within  the  last  ten  years,  a 
severe  lesson  concerning  the  instability  of  wealth 
in  some  of  its  most  trusted  forms.  Yet  are  we 
not  compelled  by  sympathy  and  antipathy,  at  the 
bottom  of  our  hearts,  to  pay  it  an  homage  which 
our  lips  would  not  avow  ?  Do  we  not  desire  wealth 
for  our  children  as  the  condition  which  shall  set 
our  minds  at  rest  concerning  them  ?  When  we  see 
mediocrity  and  vulgarity  riding  in  the  swift  car- 
riage, and  wearing  the  jewels  and  the  robes-,  bright 


30  MODERN  SOCIETY, 

in  everybody's  eyes  and  praised  in  everybody's 
mouth,  do  we  not  harbor  somewhere  a  regret  that 
we  have  not,  in  some  way  possible  to  us,  set  our 
best  abilities  to  work  to  secure  .a  similar  distinc- 
tion for  ourselves  ? 

It  should  not  frighten  one  to  see  the  court  and 
its  underlings  venal.  Court  and  courtiers  are  a 
show,  and  money  is  the  condition  by  which  a  show 
lives.  But  I  look  into  the  domain  of  letters,  and 
ask  whether  that  is  still  uncorrupted.  I  do  not 
think  that  it  is.  The  refined  tastes  of  literary  peo- 
ple lead  them  to  value  entertainment  at  the  hands 
of  the  rich.  The  luxurious  rooms,  the  abundant 
table,  the  easy  persiflage  in  which  worldly  tact 
knows  enough  to  flatter  recognized  talent.  Do 
not  these  illicebrce  seduce,  to-day,  even  the  stern 
heart  of  philosophy? 

How  unkind  was  society  to  Margaret  Fuller! 
It  was  reluctant  to  show  her  the  courtesy  due  to 
a  gentlewoman.  Its  mean  gossip  treated  her  as 
if  she  had  been  beyond  the  pale  of  elegance  and 
good  taste,  verging  away  even  from  good  behavior. 
What  was  her  offence  against  society?  A  human- 
ity too  large  and  absorbing,  a  mind  too  brave  and 
independent  for  its  commonplace.  Add  to  these 
the  fact  that  she  had  neither  fashion  nor  fortune. 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  31 

The  things  she  asked  for  are  granted  to-day  by 
every  thinking  mind,  and  she  is  remembered  as 
illustrious.  But  if  she  could  come  back  to-morrow 
as  she  was,  poor  in  purse  and  plain  ih  person,  and 
assume  her  old  leadership,  would  Boston  treat  her 
any  better  than  it  did  in  days  of  yore?  Would 
she  not  find,  even  among  Brook  farmers,  a  looking 
toward  Beacon  Street  which  might  surprise  her? 
The  literary  man,  who  went  so  bravely  from 
abstract  philosophy  to  its  concrete  expression, 
whose  learned  hands  took  up  the  spade  and  hoe, 
and  whose  early  peas  were  praised  by  those  who 
contemned  his  principles,  would-  he,  at  a  later 
day,  —  grown  urbane  and  fashionable,  —  would  he 
have  bowed  without  a  pang  to  his  former  self,  if 
he  had  met  him,  dusty  and  on  foot,  in  Central 
Park,  he  himself  being  well  mounted  ? 

I  said  just  now  that  money  could  buy  the  press. 
This  is  shameful,  because  the  press,  more  than 
any  other  power,  can  afford  to  be  frank  and  sin- 
cere. Freedom  is  the  very  breath  of  life  in  its 
nostrils,  yet  is  it  to-day  largely  salaried  by  the 
enemies  of  freedom.  While  speaking  of  the  press, 
I  will  mention  the  regret  with  which  I  lately  read, 
in  the  "  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,"  an  editorial  treat- 
ing of  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  from  France. 


32  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

The  writer,  who  denounced  this  measure  with 
some  severity,  described  the  religious  body  with 
which  it  deals  as  a  band  of  mild  and  inoffensive 
men,  chiefly  occupied  with  the  tuition  of  youth. 
He  might  as  well  have  characterized  a  tiger  as 
a  harmless  creature,  incapable  of  the  use  of  fire- 
arms. 

To  me  the  worship  of  wealth  means,  in  the 
present,  the  crowning  of  low  merit  with  unde- 
served honor, — the  setting  of  successful  villany 
above  unsuccessful  virtue.  It  means  absolute 
neglect  and  isolation  for  the  few  who  follow  a 
high  heart's  love  through  want  and  pain,  through 
evil  and  good  report.  It  means  the  bringing  of 
all  human  resources,  material  and  intellectual,  to 
one  dead  level  of  brilliant  exhibition  —  a  second 
Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold  —  to  show  that  the  bar- 
baric love  of  splendor  still  lives  in  man,  with  the 
thirst  for  blood,  and  other  quasi  animal  passions. 
It  means,  in  the  future,  some  such  sad  downfall  as 
Spain  had  when  the  gold  and  silver  of  America 
had  gorged  her  soldiers  and  nobles;  something 
like  what  France  experienced  after  Louis  XIV. 
and  XV.  I  am  no  prophet,  and,  least  of  all,  a 
prophet  of  evil;  but  where,  oh  where,  shall  we 
find  the  antidote  to  this  metallic  poison  ?  Per- 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  33 

haps  in  the  homoeopathic  principle  of  cure. 
When  the  money  miracle  shall  be  complete,  when 
the  gold  Midas  shall  have  turned  everything  to 
gold,  then  the  human  heart  will  cry  for  flesh  and 
blood,  for  brain  and  muscles.  Then  shall  manhood 
be  at  a  premium,  and  money  at  a  discount. 

The  French  have  found,  among  many  others, 
one  fortunate  expression.  They  speak  of  a  life 
of  representation,  by  which  they  mea'n  the  life  of 
a  person  conspicuous  in  the  great  world.  This 
society  of  representation  has  some  recognition  in 
every  stage  of  civilization,  since  even  nations 
which  we  consider  barbarous  have  their  festivals 
and  processions.  The  ministerial  balls  in  Paris, 
and  perhaps  many  other  entertainments  in  that 
city,  are  of  this  character. 

The  guests  are  admitted  in  virtue  of  a  card, 
which  is  really  a  ticket,  though  money  cannot 
command  it.  Many  of  the  persons  e'ntertained 
are  not  personally  acquainted  with  either  host  or 
hostess,  and  do  not  necessarily  make  their  acquaint- 
ance by  going  to  their  house.  Everything  is 
arranged  with  a  view  to  large  effects :  music,  dec- 
orations, supper,  etc.  A  party  of  friends  may  go 
there  for  their  own  amusement,  or  a  single  indi- 
vidual for  his  own.  But  there  are  no  general 
introductions  given,  there  is  no  social  fusion. 


34  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

Now  this  I  call  society  of  representation.  It 
bears  about  the  same  relation  to  genuine  society 
that  scene-painting  bears  to  a  carefully  finished 
picture.  People  of  culture  and  education  enjoy 
a  peep  at  this  spectacular  drama  of  the  social 
stage,  but  their  idea  of  society  would  be  some- 
thing very  different  from  this.  Where  this  show- 
society  monopolizes  the  resources  of  a  commu- 
nity, it  implies  either  a  dearth  of  intellectual 
resources,  or  a  great  misapprehension  of  what  is 
really  delightful  and  profitable  in  social  intercourse. 

Where  the  stage  form  of  society  predominates 
too  largely,  its  intimate  form  languishes  and 
declines.  The  communings  of  a  chosen  few 
around  a  table  simply  spread,  with  no  view  to 
the  recognition  of  the  great  Babylon,  but  rather 
with  a  pleasure  in  its  avoidance;  refined  sym- 
pathy and  support  given  and  received  in  a  round 
of  daily  duties,  by  those  whose  hands  are  busy 
and  whose  minds  are  full;  the  inner  sweetness 
of  a  beautiful  song  or  poem,  the  kindling  of  mind 
from  mind,  till  all  become  surprised  at  what  each 
can  do,  —  this  sort  of  society  maintains  itself  by 
keeping  the  noisy  rush  of  the  crowd  at  arm's 
length.  Horace  says, — 

"  Odo  profanum  vulgus  et  arceo," 


MODERN  SOCIETY.       t  35 

and  I,  a  democrat  of  the  democrats,  will  say 
so  too.  I  reverence  the  masses  of  mankind,  rich 
or  poor.  My  heart  beats  high  when  I  think  of 
the  good  which  human  society  has  already 
evolved,  and  of  the  greater  good  which  is  in 
store  for  those  who  are  to  come  after  us.  But 
I  hate  the  profane  vulgarity  which  courts  public 
notice  and  mention  as  the  chief  end  of  existence, 
and  which,  in  so  doing,  puts  out  of  sight  those 
various  ends  and  interests  which  each  generation 
is  bound  to  pursue  for  itself,  and  to  promote  for 
its  successors. 

The  time  of  poor  Marie  Antoinette  was  the  cul- 
mination of  such  a  period  of  show.  Its  glare  and 
glitter,  and  its  lavish  waste,  had  put  out  of  sight 
the  true  and  intimate  relations  of  man  to  man. 
And  so,  as  the  gilded  portion  of  the  age  made  its 
musters  of  beautiful  empty  heads,  of  vanities 
throned  upon  vanities,  the  ungilded  part  made 
its  deadly  muster  of  discontent,  displeasure,  and 
despair.  The  empty  heads  fell,  and  much  that 
was  precious  and  noble  fell  with  them.  The 
great  stage  produced  its  bloody  drama,  and  the 
curtain  of  horror  closed  upon  it. 

Critics  of  society  usually  direct  their  invective 
against  the  extravagance  and  shallowness  of  this 


36  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

exhibitory  department,  and  would  almost  make 
these  an  excuse  for  the  opposite  extreme  of  mis- 
anthropic spleen  and  avoidance.  They  should 
remember  that  while  society,  from  an  inward 
necessity,  provides  for  these  musterings  and  dis^ 
plays,  it  is  unable  to  provide  for  that  intimate  and 
personal  intercourse  which  individuals  must  found 
and  cultivate  for  themselves.  So  much  is  left  for 
each  one  of  us  to  do,  to  find  our  peers,  and  open 
with  them  an  honest  exchange  of  our  best  for  their 
best.  The  family  most  easily  begins  this,  with  its 
intense  and  ever-enlarging  interests.  Out  of  true 
family  life  comes  a  neighborhood ;  out  of  a  neighbor- 
hood the  body  politic,  and  the  body  sympathetic. 

If,  in  the  matter  of  social  intercourse,  show  is 
allowed  to  usurp  the  place  of  substance,  the  indo- 
lence of  mankind  must  bear  its  part  of  the  blame. 
It  is  far  easier  to  order  a  suit  for  the  great  occa- 
sion, than  to  brighten  one's  mental  jewels  for  the 
small  one.  Many  a  soldier  is  brave  on  parade, 
who  would  not  shine  on  a  field  of  battle.  Many 
a  woman  will  pass  for  elegant  in  a  ball-room,  or 
even  at  a  court  drawing-room,  whose  want  of  true 
breeding  would  become  evident  in  a  chosen  com- 
pany. 

The  reason  why  education  is  usually  so  poor 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  37 

among  women  of  fashion  is,  that  it  is  not  heeded 
for  the  life  which  they  elect  to  lead.  With  a  good 
figure,  good  clothes,  and  a  handsome  equipage, 
with  a  little  reading  of  the  daily  papers,  and  of 
the  fashionable  reviews,  and  above  all,  with  the 
'happy  tact  which  often  enables  women  to  make 
a  large  display  of  very  small  acquirements,  the 
woman  of  fashion  may  never  feel  the  need  of  true 
education.  We  pity  her  none  the  less,  since  she 
will  never  know  its  peace  and  delight. 

In  our  own  country,  at  this  moment,  and  in 
Europe  as  well,  ambitions  seem  to  be  unduly 
directed  to  this  department  of  social  action,  the 
training  and  discipline  for  which  differ  widely 
from  that  proper  to  intimate  and  domestic  life. 
Hence  comes  an  observable  regard,  not  to  appear- 
ances only,  but  to  appearance.  As  actors  often 
paint  their  faces  too  highly  for  near  effects,  in 
order  to  look  well  at  the  farthest  point  of  view, 
so  the  dress  and  manners  of  the  day  fit  themselves 
for  the  stage  of  the  great  world,  and  their  wearers 
seem  to  meditate  not  only  what  will  not  appear 
amiss,  but  what  will  attract  attention  by  some 
singularity  of  becoming  effect.  Hence  the  su- 
premacy for  the  time  of  those  whose  calling  it 
is  to  minister  to  appearance.  The  tailor  has 


38  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

long  been  a  man  of  destiny,  but  the  modern  plain- 
ness of  male  attire  has  somewhat  sobered  his 
pretensions.  But  look  at  the  sublime  arrogance 
of  the  ladies'  dressmaker,  and  the  almost  equally 
sublime  meekness  of  the  victim,  who  not  only 
submits,  but  desires  to  be  as  wax  in  her  hands. 
This  supreme  functionary  has,  of  course,  carte 
blanche  for  her  ordinances.  The  subject  says  to 
her,  "Do  what  you  will  with  me.  Make  me 
modest  or  immodest.  Tie  up  my  feet  or 
straighten  my  arms  till  use  of  them  becomes 
impossible.  Deprive  my  figure  of  all  drapery, 
or  upholster  it  like  a  window-frame.  Nay,  set 
me  in  the  centre  of  a  movable  tent,  but  array  me 
so  that  people  shall  look  at  me,  and  shall  say  I 
look  well." 

I  cannot  but  hate,  to-day,  the  slavish  fashion 
which  seems  to  have  been  invented  in  order  to 
intensify  that  self-consciousness  which  is  the 
worst  enemy  of  beauty.  It  is  administered  by 
means  of  a  system  of  lacets  and  whalebones, 
which  everywhere  impinge  upon  nature.  A 
young  lady  who  is  in  her  dress  like  a  sword  in 
its  scabbard  (the  French  name  for  the  fashion 
is  fourreati),  is  made  to  think  of  this  point,  and 
of  that,  until  her  whole  gait  and  movement  be- 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  39 

come  an  interrogation  of  her  silks  and  elastics. 
Can  I  sit  ?  Can  I  walk  ?  Can  I  put  this  foot 
forward,  or  lift  this  hand  to  my  head  ?  Ask  the 
satin  strait-jacket  in  which  your  artist  has  impris- 
oned you,  receiving  high  compensation  for  the 
service.  Much  as  I  resent  this  constraint  and 
restraint  of  the  body,  my  saddest  thought  is,  that 
where  it  is  endured  the  mind  has  first  been 
enslaved. 

P'oreign  travel  is  so  established  a  feature  in 
American  life,  that  it  may  well  become  us  to  take 
account  of  what  it  costs  and  comes  to. 

Our  own  importation  of  men  and  women  is 
various  and  enormous.  They  who  come  to  us 
poor  and  ignorant  in  one  generation,  are  seen 
comfortable  and  well  educated  in  the  next.  The 
disfranchised  and  landless  man  comes  to  us,  and 
receives  political  rights,  and  the  title  of  a  farm  in 
fee  simple.  No  inordinate  tribute  robs  him  of 
the  product  of  his  industry,  be  it  large  or  small. 
He  pays  to  the  State  what  it  pays  him  well  to 
afford,  for  protection  and  education.  But  how  is 
it  with  the  tribute  which  Europe  levies  upon  us 
in  the  shape  of  our  sons  and  daughters  ? 

Many  polite  tastes  have,  no  doubt,  been  fos- 
tered in  our  young  men  by  studies  pursued  in  a 


40  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

German  university,  or  art  learned  in  a  French 
studio.  Some  of  the  best  scholars  of  the  elder 
generation  have  profited,  in  their  youth,  by  such 
advantages.  But  if  we  go  beyond  the  limits  of 
literary  or  professional  life,  we  may  not  consider 
the  results  so  fortunate.  Our  society-men  some- 
times become  so  depolarized  in  their  tastes  and 
feelings,  as  to  be  at  ease  nowhere  but  in  Europe, 
and  not  much  at  ease  there.  Those  who  return 
bring  back  a  love  of  betting  and  of  horse-racing, 
and  ape  the  display  of  European  grandees  as  far 
as  their  fortunes  will  allow. 

And  our  young  women  ?  Some  of  them  study 
soberly  abroad,  and  return  to  give  their  counte- 
nance and  support  to  all  that  is  improving  and 
refining  in  their  own  country.  Some  float  hither 
and  thither,  between  England  and  Italy,  like  a 
feather  on  the  wave,  disappearing  at  last.  The 
Daisy  Millerish  chit  is  seen,  offending  in  pure 
ignorance  of  what  common-sense  should  easily 
teach  mothers  and  daughters. 

Family  groups  of  Americans  are  often  met  with 
in  Europe,  in  which  one  figure  is  wanting.  This 
is  the  father,  absent,  in  America,  working  at  his 
business  or  speculation.  These  ladies  are  often 
companionable  people,  who  enjoy  good  hotels, 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  41 

galleries,  music  on  the  public  square,  and,  above 
all,  the  sensation  of  being  far  from  home. 

One  feels  about  them  a  dreary  atmosphere  of 
homelessness.  As  the  writer  of  the  Potiphar 
papers,  while  watching  a  gay  young  mother's 
performance  in  the  "  German,"  was  constrained  to 
think  of  a  complaining  babe  in  her  nursery,  so,  in 
hearing  those  ladies  boast  of  their  enjoyments,  one 
cannot  help  remembering  with  commiseration  the 
wifeless  husband  and  daughterless  father  at  home, 
who  works  like  a  steam-fan  to  keep  these  butter- 
flies in  motion. 

More  sad  still  are  my  reflections,  when  I  hear 
that  numbers  of  American  girls,  with  large  or 
even  moderate  fortunes,  go  abroad  and  allow  it  to 
be  known  that  they  seek  a  husband  with  a'  title. 
These  are  to  be  had,  of  various  grades,  if.  the  pe- 
cuniary consideration  be  only  sufficient.  And  so 
many  of  our  laborious  men  of  business  work  hard 
in  order  to  earn  for  themselves  the  luxury  of  a 
titled  son-in-law,  who  has  not  the  ability  to  earn 
his  own  support,  and  would  scorn  to  do  it  if  he 
had. 

American  women  with  money  are  at  a  premium 
in  fashionable  Europe.  Even  without  this  supreme 
merit,  they  are  favorites.  A  London  journal  calls 


42    •  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

attention  to  the  fact  that  some  of  the  leading  ladies 
in  the  fashionable  London  of  to-day  are  Americans. 
The  versatility  of  mind  and  ease  of  manner  which 
a  free  and  social  life  develops,  appear  in  strong 
contrast  with  the  results  of  the  more  formal  edu- 
cation, which  are  often  seen  in  the  opposite 
extremes  of  timidity  and  assurance. 

As  our  young  men  are  often  entrapped,  while 
abroad,  into  marriages  which  prove  to  be  very 
unwise  and  unsuitable,  I  wish  very  much  that 
we  might  bring  and  keep  our  young  people  in  a 
better  understanding  with  each  other,  so  that 
even  the  most  ambitious  among  them  should 
be  content  to  marry  with  their  peers,  and  abide 
in  the  home  of  their  fathers. 

I  have  been  surprised,  at  some  periods  of  my 
late  visit  to  Europe,  to  perceive  the  growing  inter- 
est of  thinking  people  in  all  that  is  most -character- 
istic of  American  progress.  Again  and  again,  in 
private  and  in  public,  I  have  found  myself  invited 
to  discourse  concerning  the  happy  country  in 
which  popular  education  has  been  so  long  estab- 
lished, that  its  results  are  no  longer  putative,  but 
ascertained  and  verified.  The  country  in  which 
the  fairest  woman,  provided  she  be  a  modest  one, 
can  walk  abroad  by  day  or  night,  unmolested  and 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  •   43 

unsuspected,  the  country  in  which  women  nave 
acquired  the  courage  to  think  for  themselves,  and 
to  stand  by  each  other. 

These  invitations,  though  not  given  in  derision, 
yet  seemed  akin  to  the  Hebrew  refrain,  "Sing  us 
one  of  the  songs  of  Zion  !"  And  when  I  related 
the  facts  familiar  to  all  of  us,  to  those  who  listened 
with  half-incredulous  wonder,  it  was,  indeed,  like 
singing  the  Lord's  song  of  freedom  in  a  strange 
land. 

The  reasons  why  Europe  should  come  to 
America  are  obvious  and  pressing.  The  reasons 
why  America  should  visit  Europe  are  equally 
binding  and  cogent.  The  material  and  the  moral 
life  of  to-day  are  kept  at  their  height  by  this  flux 
and  reflux  of  human  personality,  which  carries 
with  it  every  variety  of  opinion  and  experience. 
Could  we  only  send  our  best  abroad,  and  for  the 
best  reasons !  Could  Europe  only  send  her  best, 
also,  for  their  best  help  and  study!  But  the 
human  average  profits  first  of  all  by  its  mate- 
rial enlargement,  and  will  be  received  just  as 
it  is.  So,  our  fools  go  abroad,  to  show  that 
folly  is  a  thing  of  all  times  and  climes;  and, 
along  with  the  tidal  wave  of  ignorance  and  big- 
otry, the  dark,  designing  Jesuit  seeks  our  shore, 


44  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

an<$  spins  his  fatal  web  among  our  rose-trees. 
Sun  of  divine  truth,  storms  of  divine  justice, 
sweep  away  the  evil  and  ripen  the  good ! 

When  I  see  an  American  of  either  sex  caught 
in  the  vortex  of  European  attraction,  depolarized 
from  natural  relations,  and  charmed  into  alliance 
with  feudal  barbarism  and  ignorance,  my  hearl 
rings  the  bell  of  alarm  which  is  hung  at  the  gates 
of  Paradise. 

Frpm  all  these  Western  splendors  can  this 
shallow  soul  turn  away?  From  these  golden 
fields  whose  overflow  gives  Europe  food,  while 
her  human  overflow  gives  them  labor?  From  this 
large  construction  of  human  right,  which  lifts  the 
cruel  yoke  from  the  neck  of  labor,  and  gives  him 
who  earns  the  livelihood  of  many  his  own  life  to 
enjoy  and  perfect  ?  JFrom  this  holy  record  of  pious 
endeavor,  from  these  splendid  achievements  of 
souls  inspired  by  freedom,  thou  canst  go,  joyous 
and  triumphant,  to  pay  homage  to  the  lies  which 
are  no  longer  believed  by  those  who  profess  them  ; 
lies  whose  fallacy  America  exposes  every  day  an u 
hour  to  the  detection  of  the  world. 

Thou  wilt  accept  a  title,  empty  as  an  egg-shell, 
for  a  thing  truly  noble!  Thou  wilt  call  a  cour- 
tier's grimace  polite,  a  courtesan's  fashion  elegant! 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  45 

Thou  wilt  curry  favor  in  a  vulgar  court,  courtesy- 
ing  low  to  a  prince  of  harlequins  and  harlots ! 
Thou,  child  of  the  Puritans,  wilt  kneel  and  kiss 
the  hand  which,  still  and  sole,  disputes  with  Christ 
the  mastery  of  the  world !  Then  art  thou  simply 
an  anachronism !  Some  are  born  into  the  world 
centuries  before  their  time,  some  centuries  after  it. 
Other  attractions,  innocent  in  themselves,  and 
conceivable  to  all,  detain  some  of  our  valued  fel- 
low-citizens in  perpetual  exile.  The  quiet  and 
beauty  of  English  country-life,  the  literary  and 
artistic  resources  of  a  foreign  capital,  the  romances 
of  ancient  chateaux  and  cathedrals,  some  delicious 
touch  of  climate,  some  throbbing  beauty  of  a  south- 
ern sky.  How  delightful  we  have  found  these, 
it  is  as  much  a  pain  as  a  pleasure  to  remember! 
But  let  us  also  call  to  mind  the  lesson  of  a  well- 
known  fairy  tale.  While  Beauty  prolongs  her 
absence,  the  faithful  Beast  languishes  and  comes 
nigh  unto  death.  While  we  enjoy  these  choice 
delights,  the  society  to  which  we  belong  is  sowing 
its  wheat  and  its  tares.  We  are  far  from  the  field 
in  which  the  life  of  our  own  generation  is  planted 
and  tended.  Every  honest  heart,  every  thinking 
mind,  has  its  value  in  the  community  to  which  it 
belongs.  Our  value,  such  as  it  is,  remains  want- 


46  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

ing  to  our  community,  and,  when  its  crises  of  trial 
shall  come,  we  shall  not  have  been  trained  by 
watchful  experience  to  understand  either  their 
cause  or  their  remedy. 

How  delightful  was  Italy  to  Milton!  His  Alle- 
gro and  Pensieroso  show  that  he  could  fully  appre- 
ciate both  its  mirth  and  its  majesty.  He  returns 
not  the  less  to  live  out  a  life  of  illustrious  service 
in  his  own  country,  where  his  brave  heart  and 
philosophic  mind  were  of  more  avail  to  his  time 
than  even  his  sacred  song  to  ours. 

No  one  has  any  reason  to  be  surprised  at  any 
new  manifestation  of  human  folly.  Yet  I  am 
sometimes  surprised,  to-day,  by  the  disrespect 
which  is  often  shown  to  the  word  "Protestant." 
This  name  dates,  at  farthest,  from  the  time  of 
Luther,  but  the  fact  for  which  it  stands  is  as  old 
as  human  history.  Moses  made  a  protest  when 
he  led  h.t>  people  out  of  the  luxury  and  slavery 
of  Egypt  to  find  the  free  hills  of  Judaea,  and 
to  build  on  one  of  them  a  temple  to  the  God 
of  freedom.  Christ  made  His  protest  against 
the  hypocrisy  and  injustice  of  the  old  social 
and  ecclesiastical  order.  England  and  France 
have  made  their  protests  against  monarchical  su- 
premacy. Both  went  back  from  their  daring  deter- 


MODERN  SOCIETY.  47 

mination,  but  the  lesson  was  not  forgotten.  The 
Puritans  made  their  protest  when  they  faced  the 
frowning  sea  and  the  savage  wilderness,  in  order 
that  they  might  train  their  children,  and  live  them- 
selves in  the  freedom  which  conscience  asks.  Mr. 
Garrison  and  his  associates  made  their  protest 
against  American  slavery.  Mrs.  Butler,  of  Eng- 
land, makes  her  protest  to-day  against  the  personal 
degradation  of  women.  Lucy  Stone  makes  hers 
against  their  political  enslavement. 

Does  society  inherit  ?  Is  man  the  heir  of  man  ? 
Whence  come  those  creatures  of  the  present  day 
who  smile,  and  shrug  their  shoulders,  and  feebly 
say,  "  We  don't  protest.  Our  fathers  did  some- 
thing of  the  kind,  upon  what  ground  we  cannot 
possibly  imagine.  But  we  are  quite  of  another 
sort  We  don't  protest." 

To  those  courageous  souls  which,  alone  and  un- 
aided, have  been  able  to  face  the  world's  passion 
and  inertia,  —  to  those  leaders  of  forlorn  hopes  who 
have  seen  glbry  in  the  depths  of  death  and  have 
sought  it  there,  —  to  those  voices  proclaiming  in 
the  wilderness  the  triumphant  progress  of  truth,  — 
to  those  brave  spirits  whose  strength  the  fires  of 
hell  have  annealed,  not  consumed,  —  my  soul  shall 
ever  render  its  glad  and  duteous  homage.  And  if, 


48  MODERN  SOCIETY. 

in  my  later  age,  I  might  seek  the  crowning  honor 
of  my  life,  I  should  seek  it  with  that  small,  faith- 
ful band  who  have  no  choice  but  to  utter  their 
deepest  conviction,  and  abide  its  issues.  Fruitful 
shall  be  their  pains  and  privations.  They  who 
have  sown  in  tears  the  seeds  jof  unpopular  virtue, 
shall  reap  its  happy  harvest  in  the  good  and  grati- 
tude of  mankind. 


.CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN    SOCIETY. 


I  HAVE  been  invited  to  speak  to'  you  to-day 
concerning  changes  in  American  society.  In 
preparing  to  consider  this  subject,  I  cannot  but 
remember  that  the  very  question  of  social  change 
is  to  some  people  an  open  one.  The  supposition 
of  any  real -onward  movement  in  society  is  as 
unwelcome  and  as  untrue  to  these  persons  as  was 
Galileo's  theory  concerning  the  revolution  of  the 
earth  around  the  sun.  They  will  assert,  as  indeed 
they  may,  that  the  same  crimes  are  committed  in  all 
ages,  with  the  same  good  deeds  to  counterbalance 
them  and  that  the  capital  tendencies  of  human 
nature  are  always  substantially  the  same.  This 
also  must  be  allowed.  The  error  of  these  friends 
consists  in  overlooking  the  most  characteristic  and 
human  of  these  tendencies,  which  is  that  of  pro- 
gressive desire.  This  trait,  deeper  and  stronger 
than  the  mere  love  of  change,  pushes  the  whole 


50        CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

heterogeneous  mass  of  humanity  onward,  in  a  way 
from  which  there  is  no  return. 

The  laws  of  human  motive  and  action,  mean- 
while, remain  as  steadfast  and  immovable  as  the 
laws  by  whose  application  Galileo  made  his  dis- 
covery. To  discern  at  once  the  steadfast  truth 
and  its  metamorphic  developments  will  be  the 
task  of  the  greatest  wisdom. 

When  Theodore  Parker  invited  the  religious 
world  to  consider  the  transient  and  the  perma- 
nent elements  of  Christianity,  he  made  a  popular 
application  of  a  truth  long  known  to  philosophy. 
This  truth  is  that  life  in  all  of  its  aspects  exhibits 
these  two  opposite  qualities  or  conditions.  Much 
is  transient  in  the  individual,  more  is  permanent 
in  the  race. 

The  study  of  anthropology,  so  greatly  enriched 
to-day  by  discovery  and  investigation,  would  give 
us  much  to  say  under  both  of  these  heads,  but 
most,  I  think,  under  the  last. 

I  remember  that  in  reading  Livy's  history  of 
the  second  Punic  war,  in  our  own  war  time,  I 
was  struck  by  certain  resemblances  between  the 
time  in  which  he  wrote  and  that  in  which  I  read 
him.  When  I  learned  from  his  pages  that  the 
merchants  and  ship-owners  of  ancient  Rome  man- 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.       51 

aged  to  impose  the  most  worthless  of  their  vessels 
upon  the  government  for  the  transport  of  troops 
and  provisions,  I  exclaimed,  "What  Yankees 
these  Romans  were  !  " 

In  reading  some  well-known  satires  of  Horace 
I  have  been  struck  with  the  resemblance  of  the 
ancient  to  the  modern  bore.  Boileau's  famous 
take-off  of  the  dinner  given  by  a  parvenu  is  scarcely 
more  than  a  French  adaptation  of  the  feast  of 
Nasidienus,  as  described  by  the  Roman  bard  who 
was  Boileau's  model. . 

In  Virgil's  account  of  the  good  housewife,  who 
rises  early  in  order  to  measure  out  the  work  of 
the  household,  and  in  Solomon's  description  of 
the  thrifty  woman  of  his  time,  one  sees  the  value 
set  upon  feminine  industry  and  economy  in  times 
far  removed  from  our  own,  yet  resembling  it  in 
this  appreciation. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  dissimilarity  of  ancient 
and  modern  society  is  equally  seen  in  the  same 
mirror  of  literature.  The  mention  of  matters 
which,  by  common  consent,  are  banished  from 
decent  speech  to-day,  the  position  of  Woman, 
from  the  vestal  virgin  buried  alive  for  breach  of 
trust  to  the  devium  scortum,  whom  Horace  frankly 
invites  to  his  feast,  the  gross  superstition  which 


52         CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

saw  in  religion  little  save  portents  and  propitia- 
tion, —  these  mark  on  the  dial  of  history  an  hour 
as  distant  from  our  own  in  sympathy  as  in  time. 

You  will  wish  to  hear  from  me  some  account 
of  changes  which  have  come  within  the  sphere  of 
my  own  observation,  both  as  I  have  been  able  to 
see  for  myself,  and  to  compare  what  I  have  seen 
with  what  I  have  received  from  the  generation 
immediatly  preceding  my  own.  Let  me  remind 
you  that,  with  all  the  advantages  of  personal 
observation,  it  may  be  more  difficult  fer  us  to  give 
a  true  account  of  the  age  to  which  we  belong 
than  of  more  distant  times,  upon  which  thought 
and  reflection  have  already  done  their  critical 
(and  explanatory  work.  Familiarity  so  dulls  the 
edge  of  perception,  as  to  make  us  least  acquainted 
with  things  and  persons  making  part  of  our  daily 
life.  Mindful  of  these  difficulties,  I  will  do  my 
best  to  characterize  the  threescore  years  which 
have  carried  me  into  and  out  of  the  heart  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

I  have  seen  in  this  time  a  great  growth  in  the 
direction  of  liberal  thought,  of  popular  government, 
of  just  laws  and  useful  institutions.  I  have  seen 
human  powers  so  multiplied  by  mechanical  appli- 
ances as  to  destroy  the  old  measures  of  time  and 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.       53 

distance,  and  almost  to  justify  the  veto  once  laid 
by  the  great  Napoleon  upon  the  use  of  the  word 
"  impossible  "  :  "  Ne  me  dites  jamais  ce  bete  de  mot" 
said  he ;  and  it  has  now  become  more  bete  than 
ever. 

What  feature  of  society  has  next  changed  in 
the  phantasmagoria  of  these  wonderful  lustres  ? 
Each  decade  has  made  a  fool  of  the  one  which 
went  before  it.  Whether  in  the  region  of  ex- 
tended observation  and  experiment,  or  in  £hat  of 
subtle  and  profound  investigation,  human  effort 
has  seemed  in,  this  time  to  put  itself  at  com- 
pound interest,  working  at  once  with  matters 
infinitely  little  and  with  matters  infinitely  great, 
and  surely  introducing  mankind  to  a  higher  plane 
of  comfort  and  co-operation  than  has  been 
reached  in  anterior  ages. 

While  the  mechanism  of  life  has  jthus  been 
brought  much  nearer  to  perfection  by  the  labor  of 
our  age,  the  principles  of  life  remain  such  as  they 
have  always  been. 

Pile  luxury  as  high  as  you  will,  health  is  better, 
and  the  body  of  a  well-fed  and  not  over-worked 
ploughman  is,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  a  better  pos- 
session than  the  body  of  a  man  of  fortune,  espe- 
cially if  he  be  at  the  same  time  a  man  of  pleasure. 


54        CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

Marshal  and  gild  the  pomp  of  circumstance,  and 
do  it  homage  with  bated  breath,  character  re- 
mains the  true  majesty,  honor  and  intelligence  its 
prime  ministers.  Money  can  help  people  to  edu- 
cation, by  paying  for  the  support  of  those  who  can 
give  it.  But  -money  cannot  excuse  its  possessor 
from  the  smallest  of  the  mental  operations 
through  which,  if  at  all,  -a  man  comes  to  know 
what,  as  a  man,  he  should  know. 

The  great  desiderata  of  humanity  still  remain 
these :  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  nature,  the 
purity  of  sentiment,  and  the  coherence  of  thought. 
The  great  extension  of  educational  opportunities 
which  we  see  to-day  should  .make  the  attainment 
of  these  objects  easier  than  in  ages  of  less  instruc- 
tion. But  while  the  pursuit  of  them  is  ever  nor- 
mal to  the  human  race,  the  inherent  difficulties  of 
their  attain/nent  remain  undiminished.  Without 
self-dicipline  and  self-sacrifice,  no  man  to-day 
attains  true  education,  or  the  dignity  of  true  man- 
hood. For  here  comes  in  the  terrible  fact  of 
man's  freedom  as  a  moral  agent. 

Could  our  age  possess  and  administer  the  pow- 
ers of  the  universe  to  its  heart's  content,  in  that 
heart  would  yet  rest  the  issues  of  its  life  and  of  its 
death. 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.       55 

The  period  of  which  I  have  to  speak  has  cer- 
tainly witnessed  great  improvements  in  the  theory 
of  hygiene.  The  old  heroic  treatment  of  diseases 
has  nearly  disappeared.  The  nauseous  draughts, 
the  blood-letting  and  blisters,  have  given  place  to 
moderate  medication,  the  choice  of  climate  and 
the  regulation  of  diet.  Women  have  been  ad- 
mitted as  copartners  with  men  in  the  guardian- 
ship of  the  public  health.  Athletic  sports  help 
the  student  to  fresh  blood  and  efficient  muscle, 
without  which  the  brain  sickens  and  perishes. 

But  even  in  this  department  how  much  is  left 
to  desire  and  to  do  !  Our  greatest  and  richest  city 
is  still  festering  with  the  corruption  that  breeds 
disease.  No  board  of  health  seems  to  have  power 
to  sweep  its  side  streets  and  dark  alleys.  Fash- 
ion keeps  her  avenues  clean,  and  neglects  the  rest 
of  the  vast  domain,  for  which  she  has  her  reward 
in  many  a  ghastly  epidemic.  The  late  Edward 
Clarke,  of  Boston,  —  heaven  rest  his  soul! — could 
alarm  the  whole  continent  with  his  threats  of  the 
physical  evils  which  the  more  perfect  education  of 
one  sex  would  entail  on  both.  But  he  has  left  no 
public  protest  against  the  monstrosities  of  toilet 
which  deform  and  mutilate  the  bodies  of  women 
to-day,  nor  against  the  selfish  frivolity  of  life  in 


56         CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

both  sexes,  which  is  equally  inimical  to  true 
motherhood  and  to  true  fatherhood. 

I  have  seen  in  fashions  of  dress  and  furniture 
the  curious  cycle  which  my  elders  foretold,  and 
which  it  takes,  I  should  think,  half  a  century  to 
fulfil.  My  earliest  childish  remembrance  is  of  the 
slim  dresses  which  display  as  much  as  is  possible 
of  the  outlines  of  the  figure.  I  remember  the 
elegantes  of  Gotham  walking  the  one  fashionable 
street  of  fifty-five  years  ago,  attired  in  pelisses  of 
pink  or  blue  satin.  A  white  satin  cloak  trimmed 
with  dark  fur  seemed,  even  to  my  childish  observa- 
tion, a  chill  costume  for  a  pedestrian  in  the  heart 
of  winter.  My  mother's  last  Paris  bonnet,  bought 
probably  in  1825,  appeared  to  her  children,  twenty 
years  later,  such  a  caricature,  that  pious  hands 
destroyed  it,  in  order  that  we  might  have  no  ludi- 
crous association  with  the  sweet  young  creature 
whose  death  had  left  us  babes  in  the  nursery. 

After  many  fluctuations  and  oscillations,  I  have 
seen  modern  head-gear  near  of  kin  to  the  subject 
of  this  holocaust.  I  have  seen  the  old  forms  and 
colors  return  to  popular  favor.  I  have  even  heard 
that  the  very  white  satin  cloak,  which  seemed 
outre  to  the  critic  of  six  years,  has  been  worn  and 
greatly  admired  in  the  recent  gay  world  of  Paris. 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.         S7 

The  return  in  these  cases,  it  must  be  said,  is  not 
to  the  identical  point  of  departure.  Progress, 
according  to  some  thinkers,  follows  a  spiral,  and 
is  neither  shut  in  a  circle  nor  extended  in  a 
straight  line.  The  hoops  of  our  great-grand- 
mothers are  not  the  hoops  which  we  remember 
to  have  seen  or  worn.  Their  eelskin  dresses  are 
not  the  model  of  ours.  Still,  the  recurrence  of  the 
same  vein  of  fancy  marks  a  periodical  approxima- 
tion to  the  region  or  belt  of  influence  in  which 
certain  forgotten  possibilities  suggest  themselves 
to  the  seeker  of  novelty,  and  in  which  the  capri- 
cious, antithetical  fancy  delights  to  crown  with 
honor  all  that  it  found  most  devoid  of  beauty  a 
few  lustres  ago. 

Does  this  encyclical  tendency  in  the  familiar 
aesthetics  of  life  imply  a  corresponding  tendency 
in  the  moral  and  intellectual  movement  of  man- 
kind ?  I  fear  that  it  does.  I  fear  that  serious- 
ness and  frivolity,  greed  and  disinterest,  extrav- 
agance and  economy,  in  so  far  as  these  are  social 
and  sympathetic  phenomena,  do  succeed  each 
other  in  the  movement  of  the  ages.  But  here 
the  device  of  the  spiral  can  save  us.  We  must 
make  the  round,  but  we  may  make  it  with  an  up- 
ward inclination.  "  Let  there  be  light !  "  is  some- 


58         CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

times  said  in  accents  so  emphatic,  that  the  uni- 
verse remembers  and  cannot  forget  it.  We  carry 
our  problem  slowly  forward.  With  all  the  ups 
and  downs  of  every  age,  humanity  constantly 
rises.  Individuals  may  preserve  all  its  early  delu- 
sions, commit  all  its  primitive  crimes  ;  but  to  the 
body  of  civilized  mankind,  the  return  to  barbar- 
ism is  impossible. 

The  aesthetic  elaboration- of  ethical  ideas,  always 
a  feature  of  civilization,  becomes  in  our  day  a  task 
of  such  prominence  as  to  engage  the  zeal  and 
labor  of  those  even  who  have  little  natural  facility 
for  any  of  its  processes. 

The  ignoring  of  this  department  of  culture  by 
our  Puritan  ancestors,  had  much  to  do  with  the 
bareness  of  surrounding  and  poverty  of  amuse- 
ment which  almost  affright  us  in  the  record  of 
their  society.  With  all  their  insufficiency,  these 
periods  of  severe  simplicity  are  of  great  impor- 
tance in  the  history  of  a  people.  The  temporary 
withdrawal  from  the  sensible  and  pleasurable  to 
the  severe  verities  of  ethical  study  accumulates 
a  reserve  force  which  is  sure  to  be  very  precious 
in  the  emergencies  to  which  all  nations  are  ex- 
posed. The  reaction  against  the  extreme  of  this 
is  as  likely  to  be  excessive  as  was  the  action  itself. 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY,       59 

If  we  tend  to  any  extreme,  nowadays,  it  is  to 
that  of  making  art  take  the  place  of  thought,  as 
may  somewhat  appear  in  the  general  rage  for  illus- 
tration and  decoration. 

The  ministrations  of  art  to  ethics  are  indeed 
unspeakably  grand  and  helpful.  The  cathedrals 
of  the  Old  World,  and  its  rich  and  varied  galleries, 
preserve  for  us  the  fresh  and  na'fve  spirit  of  mediae- 
val piety.  Religious -art,  indeed,  becomes  almost 
secularized  by  its  repetitions  ;  yet  each  of  its  great 
works  has  the  isolation  of  its  own  atmosphere,  and 
speaks  its  own  language,  which  we  reverently 
learn  while  we  look  upon  it. 

Of  all  arts,  music  is  the  one  most  intimately 
interwoven  with  the  ethical  consciousness  of  our 
own  time.  The  oratorios  of  Handel  and  of  Men- 
delssohn so  blend  the  sacred  text  and  the  divine 
music,  that  we  think  of  the  two  together,  and 
almost  as  of  things"  so  wedded  by  God,  that  man 
must  not  seek  to  put  them  asunder.  When  I 
have  sat  to  sing  in  the  chorus  of  the  Messiah,  and 
have  heard  the  tenor  take  up  the  sweet  burden  of 
"  Comfort  ye  my  people ! "  I  have  felt  the  whole 
chain  of  divine  consolation  which  those  historic 
words  express,  and  which  link  the  prophet  of  pre- 
Christian  times  to  the  saints  and  sinners  of  to-day. 


60        CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

In  far-off  Palestine  I  have  been  shown  the  plain 
on  which  it  is  supposed  that  the  shepherds  were 
tending  their  flocks  when  the  birth  of  the  Mes- 
siah was  announced  to  them.  But  as  I  turned  my 
eyes  to  view  it,  my  memory  was  full  of  that  pasto- 
ral symphony  of  Handel's,  in  which  the  divine 
glory  seems  just  muffled  enough  to  be  intelligible 
to  our  abrupt  and  hasty  sense.  Nay,  I  lately 
heard  a  beloved  voice  which  read  the  chapter  of 
Elijah's  wonderful  experiences  in  the  wilderness. 
While  I  listened,  bar  after  bar  of  Mendelssohn's 
music  struck  itself  off  in  the  resonant  chamber  of 
memory,  and  I  thanked  the  Hebrew  of  our  own 
time  for  giving  the  intensity  of  life  to  that  mysti- 
cal drama  of  insight  and  heroism. 

The  transcendentalists  of  our  own  country 
made  great  account  of  the  relation  of  art  to  ethics, 
and  perhaps  avenged  the  Puritan  partiality  by  giv- 
ing art  the  leading,  and  ethics  the  subordinate 
place  in  their  statements  and  endeavors.  But 
the  masters  of  the  transcendental  philosophy  in 
Europe  did  not  so.  Spinoza,  Kant,  and  Fichte 
were  idealists  of  the  severest  type.  Standing  for 
the  moment  between  the  two,  I  will  only  say  that 
the  danger  of  forgetting  the  high  labors  and  re- 
wards of  thought  in  the  pleasure  of  beautiful 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.      6 1 

sights  and  sounds  is  one  to  which  the  highest  civ- 
ilization stands  most  exposed.  To  think  aright, 
to  resolve  and  pray  aright,  we  must  retire  from 
those  delights  to  the  contemplation  of  that  whose 
sublimity  they  can  but  faintly  image,  as  we  pass  with 
joy  from  the  likeness  of  our  friend  into  his  presence. 

Love  of  ornament  is  by  no  means  synonymous 
with  love  of  the  beautiful.  The  taste  which  over- 
loads dress  and  architecture  with  superflous  irrel- 
evancies,  is  often  quite  in  opposition  to  that  true 
sense  of  beauty  which  is  indispensable  to  the  artist 
and  precious  to  the  philosopher.  "  To  xoi).ov,"  the 
Greeks  said.  Was  it  a  naive  utterance  on  their 
part  ?  Was  it  through  their  poverty  of  expres- 
sion, or  their  want  of  experience,  that  the  same 
word  with  them  signified  the  good  and  the  beauti- 
ful ?  No.  It  was  through  the  depth  of  their  in- 
sight, and  the  power  of  their  mental  appreciation, 
that  they  so  stamped  this  golden  word  as  that  it 
should  show  the  supreme  of  form  on  one  of  its 
faces,  and  the  supreme  of  spirit  on  the  other. 

The  social  domain  of  religion  has  also  under- 
gone a  change.  In  my  early  life  I  remember 
that  all  earnest  and  religious  people  were  sup- 
posed to  live  out  of  the  great  world,  and  to  keep 
company  only  with  one  another  and  with  the  sub- 


62         CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

jects  of  their  charitable  beneficence.  The  disad- 
vantages of  this  course  are  easily  seen.  Free 
intercourse  with  the  average  of  mankind  is  one 
of  the  most  important  agencies  in  enlarging  and 
correcting  the  action  of  the  human  mind.  The 
exigencies  of  ordinary  intercourse  develop  a  sense 
of  the  dependence  of  human  beings  upon  each 
other,  and  a  power  corresponding  to  the  needs  in- 
volved in  this  interdependence.  The  religious 
susceptibilities  of  individuals,  which*  are  at  once 
very  strong  in  their  character  and  very  uncer- 
tain in  their  action,  are  liable  to  become  either 
exaggerated  or  exhausted  by  a  course  of  life  which 
should  rely  wholly  upon  them  for  guidance  and 
for  interest. 

Let  us,  therefore,  by  all  means  have  saints  in 
the  world,  keeping  \o  their  pure  standard,  and 
recommending  it  more  by  their  actions  -than  by 
their  professions.  But  these  saints  must  be  brave 
as  well  as  pure.  Unworthy  doctrine  must  not 
escape  their  reprobation.  When  a  just  cause  is 
contemned,  they  must  stand  by  it.  If  the  world 
shall  cast  them  out  in  consequence,  it  will  not  be 
their  fault.  The  social  leagues  which  group  them- 
selves around  the  various  churches  of  to-day, 
seem  to  me  a  feature  of  happy  augury.  It  is  the 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.       63 

office  of  the  church  to  inspire  and  direct  the 
tone  of  social  intercourse,  and  these  associations 
should  greatly  help  it  to  that  end.  I  lately  heard 
Wendell  Phillips  complain  that  church  exercises 
nowadays  largely  consist  of  picnics  and  other 
merry-makings.  Only  a  little  before,  Mr.  Phil- 
lips, in  his  reply  to  Mr.  Parkman's  article  against 
Woman  Suffrage,  had  spoken  of  the  growth  of 
social  influence  as  a  good. 

It  does,  to  be  sure,  look  a  little  whimsical  to 
read  on  the  bulletin  of  a  Methodist  church  such 
announcements  as  this,  —  "  Private  theatricals  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Sunday  school."  But  Wesley 
introduced  the  use  of  secular  tunes  in  his  church 
on  the  ground  that  the  devil  should  not  have  all 
the  good  music.  Neither  should  he  monopolize 
the  innocent  amusements  with  which,  if  they  are 
left  to  him,  he  does  indeed  play  the  devil. 

Although  the  great  ocean  will  always  hold  Europe 
at  arm's  length  from  us,  yet  the  currents  of  belief 
and  sympathy  bring  its  various  peoples  near  to  us 
in  various  ways.  I  remember  to  have  taken  note 
of  this  long  before  the  ocean  steamships  brought 
the  eastern  hemisphere  within  a  few  days'  jour- 
ney from  our  own  seaboard,  and  very  long  before 
the  time-annihilating  cables  were  dreamed  of.  The 


64         CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

French  have  always  had  with  us  the  prestige  of 
their  social  tact  and  sumptuary  elegance.  The 
English  manners  are  affected  by  those  among 
us  who  mistake  the  aristocracy  of  position  for  the 
aristocracy  of  character.  The  Italians  rule  us  by 
their  great  artists  in  the  past,  and  by  their  subtle 
policy  in  the  present.  The  -Germans  have,  as 
they  deserve,  the  pre-eminence  in  music,  in 
metaphysics,  and  in  many  departments  of  high 
culture. 

I  have  not  long  since  been  taken  to  task  by  a 
writer  in  a  prominent  New  York  paper  for  some 
strictures  regarding  the  quasi-omnipotence  of 
money  in  the  society  of  to-day.  The  writer  in 
question  enlarged  somewhat  upon  the  greatly 
increased  expenditure  of  money  in  our  own  coun- 
try, as  if  this  must  be  considered  as  a  good  in 
itself.  He  concludes  his  statement  by  remarking 
that  Mrs.  Howe  has  never  studied  the  proper  sig- 
nificance of  the  money  question.  I  desire  to 
say  here  only  that  I  have  not  neglected  the  study 
of  this  question,  which  so  regards  the  very  life  of 
society.  One  of  its  problems  I  have  ventured  to 
decide  for  myself,  viz.,  whether  the  luxury  of  the 
rich  really  supports  the  industry  of  the  poor. 

The  aesthetic  of  luxury  is  a  mean  and  superficial 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.       65 

one.  The  critique  of  luxury  is  compliant  and 
cowardly  ;  and,  despite  its  glittering  promise  to 
pay  any  price  for  what  it  desires,  luxury  orders 
poorly,  pays  poorly,  and  in  the  end  undermines 
the  credit  of  the  State,  the  very  citadel  of  its  sol- 
vency. I  regret  and  deplore  its  prevalence  to-day, 
and  consider  it  not  as  the  safeguard,  but  as  the 
most  dangerous  enemy  of  republican  institutions. 
In  our  America,  ay,  even  in  our  Puritan  New 
England,  the  day  has  come  in  which  economy  is  a 
discredit  and  poverty  a  disgrace.  With  the  com- 
mon school  ever  at  work  to  lift  the  social  level, 
unfolding  to  the  child  of  the  day-laborer  the  page 
which  instructs  the  son  of  the  peer,  the  cry  is  still 
that  money  is  God,  and  that  there  is  none  other. 
One  may  ask,  in  the  business  streets,  whether  rich 
people  have  any  faults,  or  poor  people  any  virtues. 
A  woman  who  sells  her  beauty  for  a  rich  dower  is 
honored  in  church  and  in  State.  Both  alike  bow 
to  the  money  in  her  hand.  One  proverb  says  that 
Time  is  money,  as  if  it  were 

"  Only  that,  and  nothing  more." 

Another  proverb  says  that  Money  is  power. 
And  in  this  form,  no  doubt,  it  receives  the  most 
fervent  worship,  for  luxury  palls  sooner  or  later, 


66          CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

while  ambition  is  never  satisfied.  But  we  con- 
stantly meet,  on  the  other  hand,  with  instances 
in  which  money  is  not  power.  Money  does  not 
give  talent  or  intelligence.  You  cannot  buy  good 
government,  good  manners,  or  good  taste.  You 
cannot  buy  health  or  life.  Do  some  of  you  re- 
member the  shipwreck,  some  twenty  years  ago, 
of  a  steamer  homeward-bound  from  California? 
The  few  survivors  told  how  the  desperate  pas- 
sengers brought  their  belts  and  bags  of  gold 
to  the  cabin,  and  threw  them  about  with  a  bitter 
contempt  of  their  worthlessness.  States  have 
such  shipwrecks,  in  which  avenging  Fate  seems  to 
say  to  those  who  have  sacrificed  all  for  wealth, 
"  Thy  money  perish  with  thee." 

The  heroics  of  history  are  full  of  the  story  of 
great  ends,  accomplished  by  very  small  means. 
Now  a  handful  of  resolute  men  hold  the  forces 
of  a  great  empire  in  check,  and  beat  back  the 
ocean  surge  of  barbarism  from  the  marble  of  their 
strong  will.  Now  a  single  martyr  turns  the  scale 
of  the  world's  affection  by  throwing  into  the  bal- 
ance the  weight  of  one  small  life.  Now  a  State 
with  every  disadvantage  of  territory,  cursed  with 
sterility,  or  exposed  to  the  murderous  overflow  of 
the  salt  sea,  takes  its  stand  upon  the  simple  deter- 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.       67 

mination  to  conquer  for  itself  a  free  and  worthy 
existence.  Frederick  of  Prussia  and  his  small 
army,  Washington,  with  his  handful  of  men,  in 
these  and  so  many  other  instances,  we  admire  the 
attainment  of  mighty  ends  through  means  which 
seem  infinitesimal  in  proportion  to  them.  How 
shall  it  be  in  our  country,  to  which  Nature  has 
given  the  widest  variety  of  climate,  soil,  and  pro- 
duction? Shall  we  become  a  lesson  to  the  world 
in  the  opposite  direction  ?  Shall  we  show  how 
little  a  people  may  accomplish  with  every  circum- 
stance in  its  favor,  and  with  nothing  wanting  to 
its  success  but  the  careful  mind  and  resolute 
spirit  ?  God  forbid ! 

The  belief  in  pacific  methods  of  settling  inter- 
national differences  has  made  a  noticeable  pro- 
gress in  my  time. 

In  my  school-days  I  remember  a  grave  Presby- 
terian household  at  whose  fireside  I  one  day  saw 
an  elderly  man  seat  himself,  with  little  notice  from 
the  members  of  the  family.  I  inquired  who  he 
might  be,  and  was  told,  with  some  good-natured 
laughter,  that  this  old  gentleman  was  the  Amer- 
ican Peace  Society,  i.  e.,  the  last  surviving  member 
of  that  association.  This  was  a  humorous  ex- 
aggeration of  the  truth.  Judge  Jay,  of  New 


63         CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

York,  was  living  at  that  time,  and  all  the  enthu- 
siasm of  the  peace  cause  lived  in  him,  and  no 
doubt  in  many  others.  I  have  remembered  the 
incident,  nevertheless;  and  when  I  have  seen  the 
stately  Peace  Congresses  held  in  Europe  and  else- 
where, when  I  have  seen  rapacious  England  sub- 
mitting to  arbitration,  when  I  have  seen  the  flag 
of  military  prestige  go  down  before  the  white 
banner  of  Peace,  as  in  the  late  change  of  the 
ministry  in  that  country,  I  have  remembered  that 
day  of  small  things,  and  have  learned  that  the 
faith  of  individuals  is  the  small  seed  from  which 
spring  the  mighty  growths  of  popular  conviction 
and  sympathy. 

The  extensive  wars  which  have  taken  place 
within  the  last  forty  years,  as  extensive  and  as 
deadly  as  any  the  world  ever  saw,  are  sometimes 
quoted  in  derision  of  those  who  believe,  as  I  do,  in 
the  sober,  steady  growth  of  the  pacific  spirit 
among  people  of  intelligence.  The  reasons  for 
this  advance  lie  deeper  than  the  vision  of  the 
careless  observer  may  reach.  Within  the  period 
of  our  own  century  the  value  of  human  life  to  the 
individual  has  been  greatly  increased  by  the  wide 
diffusion  of  the  advantages  of  civilization.  The 
value  of  the.  individual  to  the  State  has  become 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.      69 

greatly  increased  by  the  multiplication  of  indus- 
trial resources,  and  by  the  immense  emigration 
which  at  times  threatens  to  drain  the  older  society 
of  its  working  population.  The  spread  of  educa- 
tion has  at  once  undermined  the  blind  belief  of 
the  multitude  in  military  leaders,  and  toned  down 
the  blind  ferocity  of  instinct  to  which  those  leaders 
are  forced  to  appeal.  Wars  of  mere  spoliation  are 
scarcely  permitted  to-day.  Wars  of  pure  offence 
are  deeply  disapproved  of. 

The  military  and  diplomatic  injustice  of  past 
times  has  left  unsettled  many  questions  of  terri- 
tory and  boundary  which  will  not  rest  until  they 
shall  be  set  right.  The  populations  which  war 
has  plundered  and  subjugated,  lay  their  cause 
before  the  world's  tribunal.  In  aid  of  this,  the 
friends  of  the  true  law  and  order  are  ever  busy  in 
forming  a  nucleus  of  moral  power,  which  govern- 
ments will  be  forced  to  respect.  Thus,  though 
the  war-demon  dies  hard,  he  is  doomed,  and  we 
shall  yet  see  the  battlements  of  his  grim  cathe- 
drals places  for  lovers  to  woo  and  for  babes  to 
play  in. 

In  religion  I  have  seen  the  dark  ministrations 
of  terror  give  way  before  the  radiant  gospel  of 
hope.  I  remember  when  Doctrine  sat  beside  the 


70         CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

bed  of  death,  and  offered  its  flimsy  synonym  to 
the  eyes  upon  which  the  awful,  eternal  truth  was 
about  to  dawn.  I  remember  when  a  man  with  a 
poor  diploma  and  a  human  commission  assumed 
to  hold  the  keys  of  heaven  and  hell  in  his  hands, 
and  to  dispense  to  those  who  would  listen  to  him 
such  immortality  as  he  thought  fit.  I  remember 
when  it  went  hard  with  those  who,  in  forming 
their  religious  opinions,  persisted  in  daring  to  use 
the  critical  power  of  their  own  judgment.  They 
were  lonely  saints ;  they  wandered  in  highways  and 
byways,  unrecognized,  excommunicated  of  men. 
No  one  had  power  to  burn  their  bodies,  but  it  was 
hoped  that  their  souls  would  not  escape  the  tor- 
ment of  eternal  flame.  I  have  seen  this  time,  and 
I  have  lived  to  see  a  time  in  which  these  rejected 
stones,  hewn  and  polished  by  God's  hand,  have 
come  to  be  recognized  as  corner-stones  in  the  prac- 
tical religious  building  of  the  age.  What  a  dis- 
credit was  it  once  to  hear  Theodore  Parker  !  How 
happy  are  they  now  esteemed  who  have  heard  him .' 
Let  not  Mr.  Emerson's  urbanity  lead  him  to  forget 
the  days  in  which  polite  Boston  laughed  him  to 
scorn.  Brook  Farm  was  once  looked  upon  as  a 
most  amusing  caricature.  But  when  the  world 
learned  something  about  Nathaniel  Hawthorne, 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.      71 


George  Ripley,  William  Henry  Channing,  John 
Dwight,  and  George  William  Curtis,  the  public 
heart  bowed  itself  with  remorseful  homage  before 
the  ruined  threshold  of  what  was,  with  all  its  short- 
comings, a  blameless  temple  to  ideal  humanity. 

It  is  quite  true  that  every  change  which  I  have 
seen  in  £he  society  of  my  time  cannot  be  said  to 
be,  in  itself,  for  the  better.  The  price  of  progress, 
like  that  of  liberty,  is  eternal  vigilance. 

A  time  of  religious  enfranchisement  may  induce 
a  period  of  religious  indifference.  Cosmopolitan 
enlargement  may  weaken  the  force  of  patriotism. 
The  charity  of  society  may  degenerate  into  an  in- 
difference concerning  private  morals,  which,  if  it 
could  prevail,  would  go  far  towards  destroying 
public  ones.  Humanity  ever  needs  the  watch- 
man on  the  tower.  It  needs  the  warning  against 
danger,  the  guidance  out  of  it.  I  can  imagine  a 
set  of  prophets  less  absolute  than  the  Hebrew 
seers,  whose  denunciation  of  evils,  near  or  present, 
should  always  couple  itself  with  profound  and 
sober  suggestions  of  help.  And  this  will  be  the 
work  of  faith  in  our  day,  to  believe  in  the  good 
which  can  overcome  the  evil,  and  to  seek  it  with 
earnest  and  brave  persistence. 

Let  me  return  for  a  moment,  very  briefly,  to 


72       CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

what  I  touched  upon  just  now,  the  great  changes  in 
religious  thought  which  this  century  has  witnessed. 
What  manifold  contrasts  have  we  observed  in  this 
domain  !  What  a  wild  and  wide  chase  in  the  fields 
of -conjecture!  What  impatience  with  the  idols  of 
the  past,  historical  and  metaphysical !  There  have 
been  moments  in  the  last  twenty  years  in  which 
one  might  have  said  to  the  religious  ideals  of  past 
ages  that  the  time  had  come  in  which  every  one 
who  raised  his  hand  against  them  thought  that  he 
was  doing  God  service.  This  iconoclasm  had  its 
time,  and,  one  supposes,  its  office. 

But  the  religious  necessities  of  mankind  are  per- 
manent, and  will  outlast  any  and  all  systems  of 
pure  criticism.  The  question  arises,  in  all  this 
havoc  of  illusory  impressions,  Who  is  to  provide 
for  the  culture  and  direction  of  those  instincts  of 
reverence  which  are  so  precious  to,  so  ineradicable 
in  the  race?  We  must  ask  this  service  of  those 
who  believe  that  religion  is,  on  the  whole,  wiser 
than  its  critics.  Those  who  have  been  able  to  hold 
fast  this  persuasion  will  be  the  religous  trainers  of 
our  youth.  Those  who  have  relinquished  it  will 
have  no  more  skill  to  teach  religion  than  a  sculptor 
will  have  to  feed  an  army. 

The  greatest  trouble  with  human  society  is,  that 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.        73 

its  natural  tendency  leads  it,  not  to  learn  right 
measure  through  one  excess,  but,  on  becoming 
convinced  of  this,  to  rush  into  an  opposite  ex- 
cess with  equal  zeal  and  equal  error.  The  mech- 
anism of  society  requires  constant  correction  in 
order  to  keep  up  the  succession  of  order  and 
progress  through  and  despite  this  proneness  to 
extravagance  and  loss  of  power.  This  rectifica- 
tion of  direction  without  interruption  of  move- 
ment is  the  office  of  critical  and  constructive 
thought.  Precious  are  the  men,  and  rare  as  pre- 
cious, who  carry  this  balance  in  their  minds,  and, 
while  the  ship  lurches  now  on  this  side  and  now 
on  that,  strain  after  the  compass  with  masterful 
courage  and  patience.  We  have  all  known  such 
men,  but  we  have  known,  too,  that  their  type  is 
not  a  common  one. 

Among  all  who  are  out  of  work  to-day,  so  far  as 
the  market  is  concerned,  those  men  of  careful  and 
critical  judgment  are  the  least  called  for,  and  the 
least  wished  for  by  the  majority  of  men.  Head- 
long enthusiasm,  headlong  activity,  headlong  doubt 
and  cynicism,  the  prevalence  of  these  shows  the 
force  with  which  the  present  whirl  of  the  spindle 
was  cast.  Fair  and  softly,  my  quick-flying  Cen- 
tury. To  find  out  whether  you  are  going  right  or 


74       CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

wrong,  whether  you  are  faithful  or  faithless,  sol 
vent  or  bankrupt,  you  must  have  recourse  to  these 
same  slow,  patient  men  and  women,  who  try  such 
questions  by  a  more  accurate  and  difficult  method 
than  that  of  the  popular  inclination. 

I  find  that  the  philosopher  Kant,  writing  more 
than  a  hundred  years  ago,  remarks  that  in  so 
sociable  an  age  as  his  own  Culture  must  naturally 
be  expected  to  assume  an  encyclopedic  character. 
It  will,  he  says,  necessarily  desire  to  present  a 
manifold  number  of  agreeable  and  instructive 
acquisitions,  easy  of  apprehension,  for  entertain- 
ment in  friendly  intercourse. 

These  words  seem  prophetic  of  the  efforts  after 
general  information,  with  a  view  to  conversation 
as  an  accomplishment,  which  have  constituted  a 
marked  feature  of  American  and  English  society 
within  forty  years.  In  the  dissolving  view  of  the 
public  predilection,  this  object  has  lost  much  of  its 
prominence.  The  ornate  and  well-rounded  periods 
of  the  conversationist  are  not  more  in  request,  now- 
adays, than  were  the  high-sounding  sentiments  of 
Joseph  Surface  to  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  when  experi- 
ence had  shown  him  their  emptiness. 

Blunt  speech  and  curt  expression  rather  are  in 
favor.  The  heroines  of  novels  are  supposed  to 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY,         75 

fall  in  love  with  men  of  a  somewhat  brutal  type. 
Adonis  is  out  of  fashion.  Hercules  pleases,  and 
even  Vulcan  is  preferred.  One  thinks  that  the 
influence  of  the  mercantile  spirit  may  be  recog- 
nized in  this  change.  Long  speeches  and  round- 
about statements  are  found  not  to  pay.  The  man 
who  listens  to  them  with  one  ear,  hearkens  with 
the  other  for  the  ocean  telegrams,  news  of  the 
stock  market,  considers  the  maturing  of  a  note, 
the  success  or  failure  of  a  scheme.  When  there 
is  no  one  to  listen,  loquacity  itself  will  grow  eco- 
nomical of  breath. 

The  world  is  quite  right  in  its  tacit  protest 
against  over  talk.  A  great  deal  of  empty,  irrele- 
vant speech  is  liable  to  be  imposed  upon  the  good- 
nature of  society  in  the  garb  of  instructive  conver- 
sation. It  is  weary  to  listen  by  the  hour  to  men  or 
women  who  principally  teach  you  their  own  opin- 
ion of  their  own  erudition.  But  woe  to  the  world 
if  its  haste  and  greed  should  ever  be  such  that  the 
true  teacher  should  want  an  audience,  the  long 
lessons  of  philosophy  find  interpreters,  but  no 
pupils. 

The  present  is,  on  the  whole,  an  encyclopedic, 
cosmopolitan  era.  I  suppose  that  it  succeeds  as 
a  reaction  to  one  of  more  special  and  isolated 


76       CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

endeavor.  The  example  and  influence  of  Goethe 
have  had  much  to  do  with  the  formation  of  the  ideas 
of  culture  which  have  been  prevalent  in  our  time. 
This  wonderful  man  went,  with  such  a  happy  tact, 
from  one  thing  to  another.  In  poetry  he  did  so 
much,  in  high  criticism  so  much,  in  science  so 
much,  and  in  world-wisdom  so  much !  How 
naturally  were  the  lovers  of  study,  who  made  him 
their  model,  led  to  undertake,  as  he  did,  to  ren- 
der the  most  eminent  service,  to  attain  the  high- 
est honors  in  a  dozen  different  departments  ! 

But  the  man  Goethe  was  more  wonderful  even 
than  his  writings.  His  individuality  was  too 
powerful  to  surfer  loss  through  'the  variety  of  his 
pursuits.  He  could  be  at  once  a  courtier  and  a 
philosopher,  a  poet  and  a  scientist,  a  critic  of 
morals  and  a  man  of  the  world,  and  in  all  things 
remain  himself. 

I  sometimes  wonder  why  we  Americans  are  so 
apt  to  show,  in  our  conduct  and  remarks,  an  undue 
preponderance  of  what  the  phrenologists  term 
love  of  approbation.  This  is  an  amiable  and  use 
ful  trait  in  human  nature,  which  may  degenerate- 
into  a  weak  and  cowardly  vanity,  or  even  into  a 
malignant  selfishness.  To  desire  the  approbation 
which  can  enlighten  us  as  to  the  merits  of  what 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.   -     77 

we  have  done  or  attempted,  is  wise  as  well  as 
graceful.  To  make  constant  laudation  a  prom- 
inent object  in  any  life  is  a  capital  mistake  in  its 
ordering.  To  prefer  the  praise  of  men  to  the 
justification  of  conscience,  is  at  once  cowardly  and 
criminal.  I  observe  these  three  phases  in  Amer- 
ican life.  I  value  the  first,  compassionate  the 
second,  and  reprobate  the  third.  Surely,  if  there 
is  any  virtue  which  a  republican  people  is  bound 
to  show,  it  is  that  self-respect  which  is  the  only 
true  majesty,  and  which  can  afford  to  be  as  gen- 
erous and  gracious  as  majesty  should  be. 

It  is,  perhaps,  natural  that  many  of  us  should, 
through  a  want  of  experience,  mistake  the  stand- 
point of  people  conspicuous  in  the  older  European 
society  as  greatly  superior  to  our  own.  We  can 
learn  much,  indeed,  from  the  observation  of  such 
a  standpoint;  but,  in  order  to  do  so,  we  must 
hold  fast  our  own  plain,  honest  judgment,  as  we 
derive  it  from  education,  inheritance,  and  natural 
ability. 

It  must,  I  should  think,  be  very  tedious  and 
very  surprising  to  Europeans  to  hear  Americans 
complain  of  being  so  young,  so  crude,  so  imma- 
ture. This  is  not  according  to  nature.  Imagine 
a  nursery  full  of  babies  who  should  bewail  the 


7  8       CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

fact  of  their  infancy.  Anyone  who  should  hear 
such  a  complaint  would  cry  out,  "  Why,  that  's 
the  best  thing  about  you.  You  have  the  new- 
ness, the  promise,  the  unwasted  vigor  of  child- 
hood, —  gifts  so  great  that  Christ  enjoined  it  upon 
holy  men  to  recover,  if  they  had  lost  them." 

If  our  society  is  young,  its  motto  should  be  the 
saying  of  Saint  Paul  to  Timothy,  "  Let  no  man 
despise  thy  youth."  The  great  men  of  our  early 
history  deserve  to  rank  with  the  ripest  products 
of  civilization.  Was  Washington  crude  ?  Was 
Franklin  raw  ?  Were  Jay,  Jefferson,  and  Hamil- 
ton immature  ?  The  authorities  of  the  older 
world  bowed  down  to  them,  and  did  them  hom- 
age. The  Republicans  of  France  laid  the  key  of 
the  Bastille  at  the  feet  of  Washington.  Frank; 
lin  was  honored  and  admired  in  the  court  circle 
of  Louis  XVI..  There  was  a  twofold  reason  for 
this.  These  men  represented  the  power  and  vigor 
of  our  youth  ;  but  our  youth  itself  represented 
the  eternal  principles  of  truth  and  justice,  for 
whose  application  the  world  had  waited  long. 
And  thinking  people  saw  in  us  the  dignity  of 
that  right  upon  which  we  had  founded  our  hope 
and  belief  as  a  nation. 

I  will  instance  a  single  event  of  which  I  heard 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.        79 

much  during  my  last  visit  in  Rome.  A  German, 
naturalized  in  America,  and  who  had  made  a  large 
fortune  by  a  railroad  contract  in  South  America, 
had  purchased  from  some  European  government 
the  title  of  "Count."  He  was  betrothed  to  the  sis- 
ter-in-law of  a  well-known  California  millionnaire, 
whose  wife  has  been  for  some  years  a  resident  of 
Paris,  where  her  silver,  her  diamonds,  and  her 
costly  entertainments  are  matters  of  general 
remark.  All  of  these  parties  are  Roman  Cath- 
olics. The  wedding  took  place  in  Rome,  and 
was  signalized  by  a  festival,  at  which  twelve 
horses,  belong  to  the  bridegroom,  were  ridden 
in  a  race,  whose  prizes  were  bestowed  by  the 
hand  of  the  bride.  The  invitations  for  this  occa- 
sion were  largely  distributed  by  a  monsignor  of 
the  Romish  Church,  and  the  king  of  Italy  hon- 
ored the  newly  married  pair  by  his  presence. 

Not  long  after  this,  I  read  in  the  Italian  papers 
that  this  very  count  had  become  a  candidate  for  a 
seat  in  the  Italian  Parliament.  I  suppose  that 
money  will  assist  an  election  as  much  in  Italy  as 
elsewhere.  The  monsignor  who  interested  him- 
self so  efficiently  about  the  invitations  for  the 
wedding  party,  was  none  other  than  the  master 
of  ceremonies  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.  He  would,  no 


80        CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.     • 

• 

doubt,  have  taken  even  greater  interest  in  the 
return  of  his  friend  to  the  Parliament.  I  do  not 
know  whether  this  gentleman  has  ever  succeeded 
in  usurping  the  place  of  a  representative  of  the 
Italian  people ;  but  the  chance  of  his  being  able 
to  do  so  lay  in  the  American  gold  of  which  he 
had  become  possessed.  Here  is  one  instance  of 
the  direct  relations  between  Rome  and  America 
which  Americans  so  placidly  overlook. 

In  this  day  of  the  world  hope  is  so  strong,  and 
the  desire  for  an  improved  condition  so  prevalent, 
that  much  may  be  looked  for  in  Europe  as  the 
result  of  the  legitimate,  action  and  influence  of 
America.  But  if  American  capital  busies  itself 
with  upholding  the  shams  of  the  old  world,  if 
American  taste  and  talent  are  led  and  pledged  to 
work  with  the  reactionary  agents  everywhere 
against  the  enfranchisement  of  the  human  race, 
where  shall  the  hope  of  the  world  find  refuge  ? 

Goldsmith  has  a  touching  picture  of  the  emi- 
grants who,  in  his  time,  were  compelled  to  leave 
the  country  which  would  not  feed  them,  for  a  dis- 
tant bourne,  which  could,  by  no  means,  be  to  them 
a  home.  But  let  us  assist  at  the  embarkation  of 
another  group  of  exiles.  These  people  have  been 
living  abroad,  and  are  about  to  return  home.  The 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.        8 1 

rich,  beautiful  land  whose  discovery  has  changed 
the  fortunes  of  the  human  race,  invites  them  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  flag  which 
represents  the  noblest  chapter  of  modern  history 
waves  over  them. 

From  dynastic,  aristocratic  Europe  they  go  to 
inherit  the  work  of  an  ancestry  heroic  in  thought 
and  action.  They  go  to  the  land  which  still  boasts 
a  Longfellow,  a  Whittier,  an  Emerson,  a  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe.  Are  they  glad  ?  Are  they  happy  ? 
No.  They  have  learned  the  follies  of  the  old  world, 
not  its  wisdom.  They  are  not  going  home, — they 
are  going  into  exile. 

Let  us  look  a  little  at  their  record  in  the  Europe 
which  they  regret  so  passionately.  They  went 
abroad  with  money,  and  the  education  which  it 
commands,  with  leisure  and  health.  What  good 
deeds  may  they  not  have  done  !  What  gratifying 
remembrance  may  they  have  left  behind  them  ! 
Shall  we  not  find  them  recorded  as  donors  to 
many  a  noble  charity,  as  students  in  many  a  lofty 
school?  We  shaft  indeed,  sometimes.  But  in 
many  cases  we  shall  hear  only  of  their  fine  clothes 
and  expensive  entertainments,  with  possible  mor- 
tifying anecdotes  of  their  fast  behavior. 

If  the  mother  leaves  a  daughter  behind  her,  it 


82        CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

is  likely  to  be  as  the  wife  of  some  needy  European 
nobleman,  who  despises  all  that  she  is  bound  to 
hold  dear,  and  is  proud  not  to  know  that  which 
it  should  be  her  glory  to  understand. 

I  said  at  Concord,  and  I  say  it  to-day,  that  the 
press  is  much  affected  by  the  money  debauch  of 
the  period.  Let  us  examine  the  way  in  which  this 
result  is  likely  to  be  brought  about. 

A  newspaper  or  periodical  is  almost  always  an 
investment  in  which  the  idea  of  gain  is  very  prom- 
inent. This  expectation  may  either  regard  what 
the  proposed  paper  shall  earn  as  a  medium  of  in- 
formation, or  the  profit  of  certain  enterprises  which 
its  statements  may  actively  promote. 

Special  organs  are  founded  for  special  emergen- 
cies, as  is  a  campaign  sheet,  or  for  the  advocate  of 
special  reforms,  like  the  antislavery  "  Standard  " 
of  old,  and  the  "  Woman's  Journal "  of  to-day. 
These  papers  rarely  repay  either  the  money  ad- 
vanced for  them,  or  the  literary  labor  bestowed 
upon  them. 

Under  the  head  of  its  earnings  the  newspaper 
depends  upon  two  classes  of  persons,  viz.,  its  ad- 
vertisers and  its  subscribers.  Either  or  both  of 
these  may  be,  displeased  by  the  emphatic  mention 
of  some  certain  fact,  the  expression  of  some  cer- 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.       83 

tain  opinion.  "If  we  tell  this  unwelcome  truth," 
say  the  managers,  "we  shall  lose  such  and  such 
subscribers.  If  we  take  this  stand,  some  of  our 
wealthiest  advertising  firms  will  choose  another 
medium  of  communicating  with  the  public."  The 
other  set  of  considerations  just  spoken  of,  the  enter- 
prises which  are  to  be  favored  and  promoted,  may 
still  more  seriously  affect  the  tone  and  action  of 
the  paper,  which  will  thus  be  drawn  in  a  twofold 
way  to  lend  itself  to  the  publication  only  of  what 
it  will  pay  to  say. 

The  annals  of  journalism  in  this  country  will, 
no  doubt,  show  a  fair  average  of  courageous  and 
conscientious  men  among  its  chiefs.  I  am  willing 
to  believe  all  things  and  to  hope  all  things  in  this 
direction.  But  I  must  confess  that  I  fear  all  things, 
too,  in  view  of  a  great  power,  whose  position  makes 
it  almost  an  irresponsible  one.  And  I  should  re- 
gard with  great  favor  the  formation  of  an  unoffi- 
cial censorship  of  public  organs,  in  view  not  so 
much  of  what  may  be  published,  as  of  what  is  un- 
fairly left  out  of  the  statements  and  counterstate- 
ments  of  conflicting  interests. 

Of  all  the  changes  which  I  can  chronicle  as  of 
my  own  time,  the  change  in  the  position  of  women 
is  perhaps  the  most  marked  and  the  least  antici- 


84       CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY, 

pated  by  the  world  at  large.  Whatever  opinions 
heroic  men  and  women  may  have  held  concerning 
this  from  Plato's  time  to  our  own,  the  most  enlight- 
ened periods  of  history  have  hardly  given  room  to 
hope  that  the  sex  in  general  would  ever  reach  the 
enfranchisement  which  it  enjoys  to-day.  I  date 
the  assurance  of  its  freedom  from  the  hour  in  which 
the  first  university  received  women  graduates 
upon  the  terms  accorded  to  pupils  of  the  opposite 
sex.  For  education  keeps  the  key  of  life,  and  a 
liberal  education  insures  the  first  conditions  of 
freedom,  viz.,  adequate  knowledge  and  accustomed 
thought.  This  first  and  greatest  step  gained,  the 
gate  of  professional  knowledge  and  experience 
quickly  opened,  and  that  of  political  enfranchise- 
ment stands  already  ajar.  The  battle  can  have 
but  one  result,  and  it  has  been  fought,  with  chiv- 
alrous temper  and  determination,  not  by  one  sex 
against  the  other,  but  by  the  very  gospel  of  fair- 
ness and  justice  against  the  intrenched  might  of 
selfish  passion,  inertia,  and  prejudice.  Equal  con- 
ditions of  life  will  lift  the  whole  level  of  society, 
which  is  so  entirely  one  body  that  the  lifting  or 
lowering  of  one  half  lifts  or  lowers  the  other  half. 
This  change,  which  in  the  end  appeared  to  come 
suddenly,  has  been  prepared  by  such  gradual  ten- 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.       85 

tatives,  by  such  long  and  sound  labor,  that  we  need 
not  fear  to  lose  sight  of  it  in  any  sudden  collapse. 
There  are  women  of  my  age,  and  women  of  earlier 
generations,  who  have  borne  it  in  their  hearts  all 
their  lives  through,  who  have  prayed  and  worked 
for  it,  without  rest  and  without  discouragement. 
Horace  Mann  was  its  apostle,  Theodore  Parker  was 
its  prophet,  Margaret  Fuller,  Lucy  Stone,  and  a 
host  of  wise  and  true-hearted  women,  whom  the 
time  would  fail  me  to  name,  have  been  its  female 
saints.  It  was  in  nature;  they  have  brought  it 
into  life ;  even  as  Christ  said,  "  My  Father  work- 
eth  hitherto,  and  I  work."  The  slender  thread 
which  crossed  the  dark  abyss  of  difficulty  was  not 
the  silken  spinning  of  vanity,  nor  the  cobweb  fibre 
of  madness.  From  the  faith  of  pure  hearts  the 
steadfast  links  were  wrought,  and  the  great  chasm 
is  spanned,  and  is  ready  to  become  the  strong  and 
sure  highway  of  hope,  for  this  nation  and  for  the 
nations  of  the  earth. 

The  customs  of  society  prescribe  the  mental 
garb  and  gait  proper  to  those  who  desire  the  favor- 
able notice  of  their  peers  in  their  own  time.  As 
these  are  partly  matters  of  tradition  and  inherit- 
ance, we  can  learn  something  of  the  merits  and 
demerits  of  a  generation  by  studying  the  habits  of 


86       CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

familiar  judgment  which  it  hands  down  to  its  suc- 
cessor. A  narrow,  ill-educated  generation  leaves 
behind  it  corresponding  garments  of  rule  and  pre- 
scription, to  which  the  next  generation  must  for  a 
time  accommodate  itself,  because  a  custom  or  a 
fashion  is  not  made  in  a  day.  The  rulers  of  society 
seem  often  more  occupied  in  dwarfing  the  mind  to 
suit  the  custom  than  in  enlarging  the  custom  so  as 
to  fit  it  to  the  growth  of  mind.  The  most  danger- 
ous rebellions,  individual  and  social,  are  natural 
revolts  aginst  the  small  tyranny  which  perpetuates 
the  insufficiency  of  the  past. 

The  copper  shoes  which  so  cramp  the  foot  of  a 
female  infant  in  China  as  to  destroy  its  power  of 
growth,  are  not  more  cruel  or  deleterious  than  are 
the  habits  of  unreflecting  prejudice  which  com- 
press the  growth  of  human  minds  until  they,  too, 
lose  their  native  power  of  expansion,  and  the 
idol  Prejudice  is  enthroned  and  worshipped  by 
those  on  whom  it  has  imposed  its  own  deformity 
as  the  standard  of  truth  and  beauty. 

The  heavy  tasks  which  nature  imposes  upon 
women  leave  them  less  at  leisure  than  men  to  re- 
form and  readjust  these  inherited  garments.  The 
necessity  for  prompt  and  early  action  obliges  them 
to  follow  the  intuitive  faculties,  as  all  must  do  who 


CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY.      87 

have  not  time  to  work  out  the  problems  of  the 
reasoning  ones.  The  instinct  of  possession  is  a 
ruling  one  in  human  nature,  and  a  woman  inherit- 
ing a  superstition  or  a  prejudice  holds  fast  to  it 
because  it  is  something,  and  she  has  got  it.  It 
seems  to  her  a  possession.  It  may  be  a  mis- 
chievous and  unfortunate  one,  but  it  will  take  a 
good  deal  of  time  and  thought  to  find  that  out. 
Those  who  have  the  training  'of  women's  minds 
often  train  them  away  from  such  a  use  of  time 
and  from  such  a  labor  of  thought.  Hence  the 
fatal  persistence  of  large  classes  of  women  in 
superstitions  which  the  thinking  world  has  out- 
grown, and  the  equally  fatal  zeal  with  which  they 
impose  the  same  insufficient  modes  of  judgment 
upon  their  children. 

I  pray  this  generation  of  women,  which  has  seen 
such  enlargements  of  the  old  narrow  order  regard- 
ing the  sex,  I  pray  it  to  deserve  its  high  post  as 
guardian  of  the  future.  Let  it  bequeath  to  its 
posterity  a  noble  standard  of  womanhood,  free, 
pure,  and,  above  all,  laborious. 

The  standard  of  manhood  really  derives  from 
that  of  womanhood,  and  not  vice  versa,  as  many 
imagine.  However  we  may  receive  from  tradition 
the  order  of  their  material  creation,  in  that  of  train- 


88        CHANGES  IN  AMERICAN  SOCIETY. 

ing  and  education,  the  woman's  influence   comes 
before  that  of  the  man,  and  outlasts  it. 

The  figure  of  the  infant  Christ  dwells  always  in 
our  mind,  accompanied  by  that  of  the  gracious 
mother  who  gave  Him  to  the  world.  Let  the  fact 
of  this  great  gift  prefigure  to  us  the  august  office 
of  Woman.  Hers  be  it  also  to  preserve  and  trans- 
mit from  age  to  age  the  Christian  doctrine  and 
the  Christlike  faitn.  And,  in  order  that  she  may 
fully  realize  the  glory  and  blessedness  of  giving, 
let  her  remember  that  what  is  worthily  given  to 
one  time  is  given  to  all  time. 


UNIFOEM  WITH  ABNOID'S  POEMS. 

THE  LIGHT  OF  ASIA; 


€I)e 


OR. 

Bemmctatton, 


Being  the  Life  and  Teaching  of  Gautama,  Prince  of  India 
and  Founder  of  Buddhism  (as  told  in  verse  by  an 
Indian  Buddhist). 

• 

BY    EDWIN     ARNOLD,    M.A. 


"  It  is  a  work  of  great  beauty.  It  tells  a  story  of  'ntense  interest,  which 
never  flags  for  a  moment ;  its  descriptions  are  drawn  by  the  hand  of  a 
master  with  the  eye  of  a  poet  and  the  familiarity  of  an  expert  with  the 
objects  described ;  its  tone  is  so  lofty  that  there  is  nothing  with  which  to 
compare  it  but  the  New  Testament ;  it  is  full  of  variety,  now  picturesque, 
now  pathetic,  now  rising  into  the  noblest  realms  of  thought  and  aspiration  ; 
it  finds  language  penetrating,  fluent,  elevated,  impassioned,  musical  always, 
to  clothe  its  varied  thoughts  and  sentiments."  —  OLIVER  WENDELL 
HOLMES,  International  Review,  October,  1879. 

"  In  Mr.  Edwin  Arnold,  Indian  poetry  and  Indian  thought  have  at  length 
found  a  worthy  English  exponent.  He  brings  to  his  work  the  facility  of  a 
ready  pen,  a  thorough  knowledge  of  his  subject,  a  great  sympathy  for  the 
people  of  this  country,  and  a  command  of  public  attention  at  home."  — 
Calcutta  Englishman. 

" '  The  Light  of  Asia '  is  a  remarkable  poem,  and  worthy  of  a  place 
amongst  the  great  poems  of  our  time.  Mr.  Arnold  is  far  more  than  '  a 
coiner  of  sweet  words  '  — he  is  the  exponent  of  noble  impressions.  He  is 
a  scholar  and  a  philosopher ;  but  he  is  also  a  true  singer."  —  London  Daily 
Telegraph. 

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{Dedication.} 

TO  THE  SCHOLARS   OF  THE  HIGH   AND   NORMAL  SCHOOL, 

For  you  this  sketch  was  written :  permit  me  to  dedicate  it  to  you,  in  fact, 
to  intrust  it  to  your  care.  Pupils  to-day,  to-morrow  you  will  be.  teachers ;  to- 
morrow, generation  after  generation  of  youth  will  pass  through  your  guardian 
hands.  An  idea  received  by  you  must  of  necessity  reach  thousands  of  minds. 
Help  me,  then,  to  spread  abroad  the  work  in  which  you  have  some  share,  and 
allow  me  to  add  to  the  great  pleasure  of  having  numbered  you  among  my  hearers 
the  still  greater  happiness  of  calling  you  my  assistants.  E.  LEGOUVE. 

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ciation," "Stuttering,"  "Punctuation,"  "  Readers  and  Speakers,"  "Reading  as 
a  Means  of  Criticism,"  "  On  Reading  Poetry,"  &c.,  and  makes  a  strong  claim  as 
to  the  value  of  reading  aloud,  as  being  the  most  wholesome  of  gymnastics,  for  to 
strengthen  the  voice  is  to  strengthen  the  whole  system  and  develop  vocal  power. 


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SlGNOR  MQNALDINI'S  NIECE. 

Extracts  from  some  Opinions  by  -well-known  Authors. 

"  We  have  read  '  Signor  Monaldini's  Niece '  with  intensest 
interest  and  delight.  The  style  is  finished  and  elegant,  the  at- 
mosphere of  the  book  is  enchanting.  We  seem  to  have  lived  in 
Italy  while  we  were  reading  it.  The  author  has  delineated  with  a 
hand  as  steady  as  it  is  powerful  and  skilful  some  phases  of  human 
life  and  experience  that  authors  rarely  dare  attempt,  and  with 
marvellous  success.  We  think  this  volume  by  far  the  finest  of 
the  No  Name  Series." 

"  It  is  a  delicious  story.  I  feel  as  if  I  had  been  to  Italy  and 
knew  all  the  people.  .  .  .  Miss  Conroy  is  a  strong  character,  and 
her  tragedy  is  a  fine  background  for  the  brightness  of  the  other 
and  higher  natures.  It  is  all  so  dramatic  and  full  of  color  it  goes 
on  like  a  lovely  play  and  leaves  one  out  of  breath  when  the  cur- 
tain falls." 

"  I  have  re-read  it  with  great  interest,  and  think  as  highly  of  it 
as  ever.  .  .  .  The  characterization  in  it  is  capital,  and  the  talk 
wonderfully  well  done  from  first  to  last."  » 

"  The  new  No  Name  is  enchanting.  It  transcends  the  ordinary 
novel  just  as  much  as  a  true  poem  by  a  true  poet  transcends  the 
thousand  and  one  imitations.  ...  It  is  the  episode,  however,  of 
Miss  Conroy  and  Mrs.  Brandon  that  is  really  of  most  importance 
in  this  book.  ...  I  hope  every  woman  who  reads  this  will  be 
tempted  to  read  the  book,  and  that  she  will  in  her  turn  bring  it  to 
the  reading  of  other  women,  especially  if  she  can  find  any  Mrs. 
Brandon  in  her  circle." 

In  one  volume,  i6mo,  bound  in  green  cloth,  black  and  gilt  let- 
tered. Price  #1.00. 

Our  publications  are  to  be  had  of  all  Booksellers.  When 
not  to  be  found,  send  directly  to 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS.  BOSTON. 


Messrs.   Roberts   Brothers    Publications. 


THE  COLONEL'S  OPERA  CLOAK. 


"  A  jollier,  brighter,  breezier,  more  entertaining  book  than  '  The  Colonel's 
Opera  Cloak '  has  not  been  published  for  maay  a  day.  We  defy  the  coldest- 
blooded  reader  to  lay  it  down  before  it  is  finished,  or  to  read  it  through  without 
feeling  his  time  well  spent.  There  is  plenty  of  satire  in  its  pages,  but  it  is  good- 
natured  satire.  The  characters  are  sharply  drawn  —  some  of  them  from  nature, 
we  fancy  —  and  there  is  spice  enough  in  the  way  of  incident  to  satisfy  the  most 
exacting  palate.  Of  course,  everybody  will  read  it,  and,  in  that  presumption,  we 
promise  everybody  two  hours  of  thorough  enjoyment." —  Boston  Transcript. 

"The  No  Name  Series  abounds  in  contrasts,  and  that  between  '  Signer  Mo- 
naldini's  Niece'  and  the  present  story  is  among  the  most  decided  it  has  offered. 
This  we  do  not  mention  by  way  of  disparagement.  On  the  contrary,  we  can  see 
a  distinctive  merit  in  a  series  which  includes  so  much  variety  of  aim  and  interest 
as  this  does,  without  any  regard  for  the  conventional  demand  that  a  succession  of 
stories  in  the  same  binding  should  all  be  of  one  school  and  in  something  the  same 
tone.  We  can  see  why  an  admirer  of  the  last  novel  may  at  first  be  taken  aback 
by  the  light  tone  of  this,  and  in  so  far  disappointed ;  but  we  shall  expend  no 
sympathy  on  that  person.  'The  Colonel's  Opera  Cloak'  is  a  bright  and 
thoroughly  alluring  little  book,  with  which  it  would  be  foolish  to  find  fault  on  any 
score.  And,  more  than  that,  it  is  well  written  and  brimming  over  with  wit. 
The  notion -«f  a  story  in  which  there  is  avowedly  no  hero  or  heroine  excepting  an 
old  opera  cloak,  :s  clever,  and,  so  far  as  we  know,  quite  new.  .  .  .  We  can 
assure  every  one  who  wishes  the  double  pleasure  of  laughter  and  literary  enjoy- 
ment, that  this  is  one  of  the  books  to  carry  to  the  country."  —  Boston  Courier. 

"The  author's  touch  is  always  that  of  the  artist ;  it  always  has  the  magic  power 
of  portraying  individual  men  and  women,  never  giving  us  shadowy  outlines,  how- 
ever few  or  tarried  the  strokes  of  the  pencil  may  be,  and  saying  this  we  say  that 
the  author  of 'The  Colonel's  Opera  Cloak'  has  in  large  measure  the  best  and 
most  necessary  qualification  for  doing  really  fine  work  in  fiction.  If  he  is  still 
young,  as  certain  things  in  his  story  indicate  that  he  is,  his  future  efforts  may  well 
ba  'oo^ed  lor  hopefully."  — N.  Y.  Evening  Post, 

In  one  volume.     i6mo.     Green  cloth.     Price  $i.oa 


Our  publications  are  to  be  had  of  all  Booksellers.     When 
not  to  be  found,  send  directly  to 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 

BOSTON. 


SARAH    TYTLER'S    ART    BOOKS. 

THE  OLD  MASTERS  AND  THEIR  PICTURES. 
MODERN  PAINTERS  AND  THEIR  PAINTINGS. 

By  SARAH  TYTLER,  author  of  "  Papers  for  Thoughtful  Girls." 
i6mo.     Cloth,  neat.     Price  of  each,  $1.50, 

•  Designed  for  the  use  of  Schools  and  Learners  in  Art,  and  extensively  used  in 
Academies,  Seminaries,  &c.,  throughout  the  country. 

"  An  excellent  introduction  to  the  history  of  art."  —  Daily  News. 

"  These  two  books  give  in  a  simple  and  concise  manner  the  prominent  facts 
that  every  one  who  desires  to  be  well  informed  should  know  about  the  great 
artists  of  the  world.  For  beginners  in  art  and  for  school  use  they  are  valuable." 
—  Courier- Journal. 

"  Really  supplies  what  has  long  been  a  want."  —  British  Quarterly  Review. 

"  We  are  not  aware  of  any  work  of  the  kind  written  with  so  much  intelligence 
which  yet  is  so  untechnical."  —  Nonconformist. 

"  Too  much  praise  cannot  be  given  the  conscientious  manner  in  which  the 
author  has  worked.  There  is  no  obtrusion  of  useless  details  or  of  unwelcome 
criticism  ;  but  in  very  pleasant  style,  with  clear  and  well-defined  purpose,  the 
story  of  the  growth  and  progress  of  art  is  told  through  the  lives  and'works  of 
artists.  The  volumes  are  most  agreeable  reading  and  profitable  study."  — 
Boston  Post. 

MUSICAL  COMPOSERS  AND  THEIR  WORKS. 

For    the   Use   of   Schools    and    Students    in  America.      By 
SARAH  TYTLER.    i  vol.     i6mo.    $1.50. 

In  this  unostentatious  but  carefully  written  volume,  the  author  of  "  Old 
Masters"  and  "Modern  Painters"  has  given  a  simple  account  of  the  great 
musicians  of  the  world  and  of  their  works.  The  book  is  designed  more  especially 
for  the  use  of  young  people  in  the  course  of  their  musical  education,  but  the 
author  trusts  —  and  with  very  good  reason  —  that  it  will  commend  itself  also  to 
older  people,  who  are  interested  in  the  subject,  but  who  have  not  time  or  oppor- 
tunity to  refer  to  original  sources  of  information.  Not  the  least  attractive  portion 
of  the  work  is  the  sketch  of  Wagner  with  which  it  closes. 


"NO    NAME   SERIES." 

The  First  Series,  completed, 

COMPRISES    TWELVE    NOVELS,    VIZ., 

MERCY  PHILBEICK'S  CHOICE.  HETTY'S  STRANGE  HISTORY. 

IS  THAT  ALL*  WILL  DENBIGH,  NOBLKHAK. 

KISMET.  THE  WOLF  AT  THE  DOOR. 

THE  GREAT  MATCH.  MARMORNE. 

A  MODERN  MEPHISTOPHELES.  MIRAGE. 

AFTERGLOW.  GEMINI. 

AND    TWO    POETICAL    VOLUMES: 

DEIRDRE.    A  Novel  in  Verse. 

A  MASQUE  OF  POETS.  Original  Poems,  by  Fifty  Poets,  written  spe- 
cially for  this  book ;  including  "  GUY  VERNON,"  an  entire  Novelette  in 
verse. 

Fourteen  volumes  in  all,  uniformly  bound  in  black  cloth,  red 
and  gilt  lettered.     Price  $1.00  each. 


"NO  NAME    [SECOND]    SERIES. 

The  new  series  will  retain  all  the  peculiar  features  which 
made  the  first  so  popular,  differing  from  it  only  in  the  style 
of  binding.  Now  ready, 

SIGNOR   MONALDINI'S    NIECE, 

THE   COLONEL'S    OPERA   CLOAK, 
HIS    MAJESTY,    MYSELF, 

MRS.  BEAUCHAMP  BROWN, 

Price  $1.00  each.  SALVAGE. 

Our  publications  are  to  be  had  of  all  booksellers.     When 
not  to  be  found  send  directly  to 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,   Publishers, 

BOSTON. 


THE  "NO   NAME   SERIES." 


KISMET.    A  Nile  Novel 

Opinions,  generous  tributes  to  genius,  by  well-known  authors 
whose  names  are  withheld. 

"  Well,  I  have  read  '  Kismet,1  and  it  is  certainly  very  remarkable.  The 
story  is  interesting,  —  any  well-told  love  story  is,  you  know,  —  bat  the  book  itself  is 
a  great  deal  more  so.  Descriptively  and  sentimentally,  —  I  use  the  word  with 
entire  respect,  —  it  is,  in  spots,  fairly  exquisite.  It  seems  to  me  all  glowing  and 
overflowing  with  what  the  French  call  beautt  du  diabU.  .  .  .  The  conversa- 
tions are  very  clever,  and  the  wit  is  often  astonishingly  like  the  wit  of  an  accom- 
plished man  of  the  world.  One  thing  which  seems  to  me  to  show  promise  — 
great  promise,  ii  you  will  —  for  the  future  is  that  the  author  can  not  only  repro- 
duce the  conversation  of  one  brilliant  man,  but  can  make  two  men  talk  together  as 
if  they  were  men,  —  not  women  in  manly  clothes." 

"It  is  a  charming  book.  I  have  read  it  twice,  and  looked  it  over  again,  and 
I  wish  I  had  it  all  new  to  sit  up  with  to-night  It  U  so  fresh  and  sweet  and  inno- 
cent and  joyous,  the  dialogue  is  so  natural  and  bright,  the  characters  so  keenly 
edged,  and  the  descriptions  so  poetic.  I  don't  know  when  I  have  enjoyed 
any  thing  more,  — never  since  I  went  sailing  up  the  Nile  with  Harriet  Martineau. 
...  You  must  give  the  author  love  and  greeting  from  one  of  the  fraternity. 
The  hand  that  gives  as  this  pleasure  will  give  us  plenty  more  of  an  improving 
quality  every  year,  I  think.' ' 

"  '  Kismet'  is  indeed  a  delightful  story,  the  best  of  the  series  undoubtedly." 

"  If  '  Kismet*  is  the  first  work  of  a  young  lady,  as  reported,  it  shows  a  great 
gift  of  language,  and  powers  of  description  and  of  insight  into  character  and  life 
quite  uncommon.  ...  Of  the  whole  series  so  far,  I  think  '  Mercy  Philbrick's 
Choice '  is  the  best,  because  it  has,  beside  literary  merit,  some  moral  tone  and 
vigor.  Still  there  are  capabilities  in  the  writer  of  '  Kismet '  even  higher  than  in 
that  of  the  writer  of  '  Mercy  Philbrick's  Choice.'  " 

"I  liked  it  extremely.  It  is  the  best  in  the  series  so  far,  except  in  con- 
struction, in  which  'Is  That  All?'  alight  as  k  is,  aet:i»M  to  me  superior. 
'  Kismet '  is  winning  golden  opinions  everywhere.  I  have  nothing  but  praises 
for  it,  and  have  nothing  but  praise  to  give  it" 

"  I  have  read  '  Kismet '  once,  and  mean  to  read  it  again  It  in  thoroughly 
charming,  and  will  be  a  success." 

One  Tolume,  bound  In  cardinal  red  and  black.    Price  # l.OO. 


Our  publications  are  to  be  had  of  all  booksellers.     When  not 
to  be  found,  send  directly  to 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS,    Publishers,  Boston. 


PUBLISHERS'   ADVERTISEMENT. 


From  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser. 

THE   "NO   NAME   SERIES." 

•"LEIGH  HUNT,  in  his  'Indicator?  has  a  pleasant  chaffer 
on  the  difficulty  he  encountered  in  seeking  a  suitable  and  fresh 
title  for  a  collection  of  his  miscellaneous  writings.  Messrs. 
Roberts  Brothers  have  just  overcome  a  similar  difficulty  in 
the  simplest  manner.  In  selecting  "No  NAME,"  they  haw 
selected  the  very  best  title  possible  for  a  series  of  Original 
American  Novels  and  Talcs,  to  be  published  Anonymously. 
These  novels  are  to  be  written  by  eminent  authors,  and  in 
each  case  the  authorship  of  the  work  is  to  remain  an  inviolable 
secret.  "  No  Name  "  describes  the  Series  perfectly.  No  name 
will  help  the  novel,  or  the  story,  to  success.  Its  success  will 
depend  solely  on  the  writer's  ability  to  catch  and  retain  the 
reader's  interest.  Several  of  the  most  distinguished  writers 
of  American  fiction  have  agreed  to  contribute  to  the  Series, 
the  initial  volume  of  which  is  now  in  press.  Its  appearance 
will  certainly  be  awaited  with  curiosity." 


The  pian  thus  happily  foreshadowed  will  be  immediately 
inaugurated  by  the  publication  of  "  MERCY  PHILBRICK'S 
CHOICE,"  from  the  pen  of  a  well-known  and  successful  writer 
of  fiction. 

It  is  intended  to  include  in  the  Series  a  volume  of  anonymous 
poems  from  famous  hands,  to  be  written  especially  for  it. 

The  "  No  Name  Series  "  will  be  issued  at  convenient  inter- 
\'als,  in  handsome  library  form,  i6mo,  cloth,  price  $1.00  each. 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS. 

f, 

BOSTON,  Midsummer,  1876.  *• 


3 


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